Focus: All My Might

Text. Dt.6:5

"And thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with ALL THY MIGHT."

Loving God requires all the energy you've got. God is saying to you, 'Love me with total power and passion.' The Hebrew word for love is ahab, and it involves loving with utmost intensity and extreme affection.

Loving God produces heat. God wants to see us loving Him with power and passion. Cold or indifferent love is of no use to God.

First love is pure and heated love. It is love totally devoid of apathy and lethargy. Love is expressed in action, and action is a function of energy. We have to be passionate about loving God. We must be willing to expend all our powers as an expression of our love for God.

Love will do anything and everything to express itself. Love is not lazy. Love is not weak. Love is not heartless. Love is not powerless. Indeed love is energetic and industrious. Paul says, "And I will very gladly SPEND and be SPENT for you…" (2Cor.12:15). Love is expendable. Love will exhaust its energy in deeds of love.

Love is wonderfully and utterly wasteful. Divine love is extravagant. Love is never idle. Remember that the Holy Spirit is pouring into our hearts the love of God. So we are simply returning to God the love that is rightfully His. We love God with His own love, and by His love in us we are willing to do anything for Him as a result.

Jesus asked Peter, "Do you love me?" And when Peter responded in the affirmative, Jesus says to him, "Feed my sheep." Real love is a doing love.

David says, "Now I have prepared with ALL MY MIGHT for the house of my God…" (1Chron.29:2). He expended or invested all his energy in God's project. He also said, "Now, behold, in MY TROUBLE, I have prepared for the house of the LORD…" "Moreover, because I have SET MY AFFECTION to the house of my God…" (1Chron.22:14; 29:3).

Do you see that - "all my might… my affection"? Give God your affection and passion. Be passionate about loving God. "If you love me," Jesus Christ says, "keep my commandments." Love is loyal. Love is obedient. Love is vital and active - energetic and passionate.

My prayer for you is in Col.1:11, and it reads, "STRENGTHENED with ALL MIGHT, according to his GLORIOUS POWER…" Amen.

by Bishop Moses E. Peter