THE FIRST COMMANDMENT

Over the last week, people all over the world celebrated St Valentine’s day and there was a lot of “love” in the air.

For most people, it was another regular day either by choice of election or by situational circumstances but all in all, February 14 is a day that most people (females mostly J) look forward to with much gusto.

A passage of scripture occupied my heart for most of that week and formed the basis for my meditations for the period and I would like to share some portion of that passage with you.

Matthew 22:35-38 (NLT)

35One of them, an expert in religious law, tried to trap him with this question: 36"Teacher, which is the most important commandment in the law of Moses?" 37Jesus replied, "'You must love the LORD your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.' 38This is the first and greatest commandment.

For the sake of this write up, I will stop at 38.

Most of us are conversant with the “ten commandments” but is it not rather interesting that Jesus when asked which commandment was the greatest, responded with an answer that is not captured in what we all grew up to know as the ‘ten commandments of Moses’? an in-depth review of this will make a great topic for another day. But for today, let us stay on the subject matter; Love.

Love according to Jesus is a commandment. According to the Oxford dictionary, a commandment is a rule to be observed strictly. Meaning that going by Jesus’ words, we are under a strict mandate to love God with ALL our hearts, ALL our soul and ALL our mind.

Permit me to ask you to pause at this point and read Matthew 22:37 again but please do so in slow motion with a 3D view of yourself.

While you are digesting that passage, I would like you to ask yourself; do I love God with ALL my heart, ALL my soul and ALL my mind?

When you love someone or something, the thought of the person/thing consumes you. The thought of a loved one literally consumes you. You go to bed thinking about the person, wake up thinking about the person, you even see this person in your dreams and most times, spend a very good part of your day daydreaming about this person. Every person that has ever had a huge crush on someone would understand what I am saying. And this doesn’t come near to describing the expectations of the feeling of love.

How much of you has God consumed? Does He have ALL your heart, your soul and your mind or have you allocated just some part to Him? As a child of God, the commandment is to ensure that all of us is geared towards loving God. We must be lost in Him.

February 14 has come and gone, but the question that still lingers in my heart is this; based on my evaluation of myself, can I really say that I have loved the Lord my God with all my heart, all my soul and all my mind? Everything I am doing currently, every thought in my heart, every action that I have taken and will take, are they all geared towards expressing my love for my Father? Can I truly say that I have strictly observed the rule to love my Lord my God?

I have spent some time answering these questions for myself but I want to pose the same questions to you; have you really obeyed the first commandment?

Selah!

CHOOSE JOY

I had the opportunity to teach last week and I shared from a hymn in the book of Habakkuk and for some reason even after that meeting, the word kept growing in my heart and is still doing so. I thought to share some part of that message with you.

Habakkuk 3:17-18

17 Though the fig tree may not blossom, nor fruit be on the vines; Though the labor of the olive may fail, and the fields yield no food; Though the flock may be cut off from the fold, and there be no herd in the stalls… 18 Yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in the God of my salvation.

I know most of us grew up in the name it and claim it era of Christianity and financial prosperity is a major sign of a thriving relationship with God in our times. Unfortunately what this has resulted in is a breed of Christians who have little or no tolerance for adversity. So at the slightest emergence of anything that may seem like an adversity, the response of many is to seek the easiest route out which most times is one of compromise.

The scripture reference above from the book of Habakkuk depicts a man in an agrarian society. The cycle explained in verse 17 of chapter 3 of that book speaks to a year of absolutely no harvest. His fields did not yield, his trees did not blossom, there were no fruits from his vine and to crown it off there was no flock in his fold. Now let me paint this picture in the light of our current day reality; imagine going to work every day for a year and not receiving a single wage/salary in that year despite all your effort/input/transportation to and fro work and you don’t get paid at the end of the year.

I don’t know how Habakkuk did it in his day, but I can tell you that the default reaction of most people will be severe rage. Actually, I doubt the individual will still be coming to work after 6 months of no pay.

However, look at Habakkuk’s response in verse 18; he said; Yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in the God of my salvation. I think it is the NIV version of verse 18 that says Yet, I choose to rejoice… the prophet Habakkuk CHOSE to rejoice. He chose to joy in the God of his salvation.

I underline the word CHOOSE because this means that circumstances were demanding a different response from him, but his reaction to the circumstances on ground was a conscious one from his end, he chose to respond in joy.

I don’t know what situation you may currently find yourself in, I don’t know how grave that situation is, no matter how bad it is, I call on you today to choose joy. Look that problem in the face and consciously laugh out loud at it in joy. Let your joy be born out of the knowledge of the salvation you were saved with in Christ. God saved you, you are His and He is yours. He has promised that He will never leave nor forsake you. The psalmist puts it this way; he said though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil for You God are with me. Let your joy be in God, He is with you watching over and keeping you.

So I compel you to choose joy today. The word choose presupposes that you have an option how to respond to your situation. You either respond in fear which in turn leads to depression et al or you can choose to respond in JOY.

I choose JOY, what about you?