Heart, Soul and Mind

In Matthew 22:37 it says:

"Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul and with all your mind."

We are called to have one One Love, one Master, one Craving, and it's all supposed to be Him! 

Our heart deals with our affections. Our relationships are to be second to our relationship with Jesus, even our children and our spouse are to be second. God is a jealous God and wants our affection. I pray that no one will capture my heart and affection above Him and I will work diligently to keep Him as my first Love.

Our soul deals with adoration. This would be things we serve or follow or obey above Him.  It could include money, a job, hobbies, etc...If it has taken over our life, it has become a master. In the new song called Breathe by Jonny Diaz there is a line that I love so much, it says "lay down what's good and find what's best"

I pray that I will not serve anything above you, Lord and even those good things in my life I will surrender to you.

Our mind deals with appetite.  These are cravings we place above our hunger and thirst for righteousness; food, addictions, alcoholism, etc.  I pray that I will not put any craving above my craving for Your Word, Lord.

In Genesis 3 we see that the serpent got to Eve in these three areas. Her eyes turned to look at another, her ears began to listen to another master and her mouth began to crave a different fruit.  My study that I'm doing gave three ways to help in our efforts to keep these areas pure.  

Any affection that has been placed above God requires repentance through prayer.

Any adoration that has become what we serve requires removal through giving.

Any appetite that has become greater than our hunger for Him requires restraint through fasting. 

Wow! What a great message this morning! I believe these three disciplines are so important to the root of following Jesus and hope someone else out there needed to hear this as much as I did today!