Greatest Commandment

Jesus spent His entire ministry teaching and relating to people on an intensely personal level.  This manner of piety and faith seemed so foreign to His adversaries that they often tried to trap Jesus by asking provocative questions.  On one such occasion, the Pharisees came to Jesus to test Him, and one, a lawyer, asked Jesus what the greatest commandment was.  Jesus, calm but direct, replies, "You shall love the Lord, Your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind (Matt. 22:37)".

This is the greatest commandment and is the funnel by which all Christian life travels through and towards.  It is by no means a light matter.  Instead, Jesus cuts with conviction into every person's inability to fulfill the commandment with the precision of an elite surgeon.  Heart, Soul, and Mind; all of it.  Seriously?  All of it?

Not only is the gravity of Jesus' answer to the religious elitist challenging to every believer, it immediately refers to the Mosaic covenant (Deut. 6:5).  In a concise way, Jesus is saying that God has only ever required the same thing from anyone who wishes to be obedient: everything.  God wants it all.

God created us through Him and for Him (Col. 1:16; John 1:3).  We are sustained by His power from moment to moment.  This is truth and reality.  What Christ is actually asking of us, nay, commanding us, is to ascend to this reality and to confirm it in our very lives, heart, soul, and mind.  Every single part, every nook and cranny, is to be filled with His presence.  But how do we even begin such a momentous undertaking?

Prayer.  True prayer is the highest form of worship.  It is a humble offering of praise to the Lord.  When we are praying, we are intentionally entering into a sacred time of communion with God.  And, although the particulars of location and method are important, prayer can be simply accomplished by constant focus realignment.

Realigning our hearts, souls, and minds on our relationship with God is the basis for prayer and should be the foundation that supports our fulfillment of the greatest commandment.  Only when we are focused and fixed on Christ can we come close to devoting all of ourselves to Him.  Fortunately, God is God.  If we are empty or void of focus, it is because we are not concentrating on Him when we are stuck on ourselves.  He is beyond any spatial comprehension but one thing is clear, when we are focused on Him, He will overfill us with His holy presence.  Oh how lovely!