Love the Lord your God with all your heart.

Devotion based on Deuteronomy 6:5

By now, everyone is likely familiar with the show, The Bachelor. The show has several other versions at this point, but the premise is always the same. The contestant dates a few dozen individuals simultaneously and gradually whittles that number down to the one person they hope to spend the rest of their lives with. It often happens that the individual will find themselves in love with multiple people. To many of us, that seems unrealistic. How can you fall in love with numerous people at the same time?

The truth is, while we are not likely to be candidates for that TV show, we all have hearts that are hopelessly divided. So many things in life demand our love and attention. In fact, our hearts have trouble settling on one thing to love. We throw our hearts at one thing one day, only to find a new target for our love the next.

It begs the question: how much room in our hearts is left for God? Does he get all of our hearts? Truthfully, we love far too many other things more than we love God. It seems that when God asks us to love him with all our hearts, he is asking the impossible.

Impossible for us, yes. But not impossible for Jesus. Jesus loved God with all his heart all the time. He proved it once and for all by obeying his Father’s will and dying on the cross to pay for the sins of the world. He didn’t even love his own life more than he loved God. He lived and died so that we could have forgiveness for the times when we failed to love God. Jesus did this all out of love for us, too.

None of the other things we give our hearts to in this world can do what Jesus has done for us. He has forgiven our sins and earned a place in heaven for us. In view of these wonderful things, give your whole heart to God.

Prayer: