Love With All Your Heart

We are told to love God with all of our hearts, souls, minds and strength. As humans, we have 4 areas that make us up: emotional, spiritual, mental and physical. So when we are told to love God with all of our hearts that means we are to love Him with our emotions, but how do we do that?

Matthew 6:19-21 New American Standard Bible (NASB)

Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in or steal; for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

Proverbs 4:23 New American Standard Bible (NASB)

Watch over your heart with all diligence,
For from it flow the springs of life.

Luke 6:45 New American Standard Bible (NASB)

The good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth what is good; and the evil man out of the evil treasure brings forth what is evil; for his mouth speaks from that which fills his heart.

As much as we may hate to admit it, our emotions are deeply tied to how we act. It is an integral part of our being which we cannot ignore or deny for it affects us whether we acknowledge it or not. That is why we need to watch over it diligently. It will determine the course of our actions. We need to keep our hearts good so that our lives and actions will be good.

That is how we love God with our emotions. We guard them diligently, neither ignoring them nor being controlled by them. We need to seek God, to be led by Him, so that He can change our hearts and mold them into hearts like His.

Ezekiel 36:26 New American Standard Bible (NASB)

Moreover, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.

Note in this context that flesh does not mean the same as we see in the New Testament referring to the old sinful way of life. Here the contrast between stone and flesh refers to our sensitivity to God, being spiritually dead or alive. We are born with hearts of stone that are dead, but when we give our lives to Christ He replaces our dead hearts with living hearts of flesh. That is when He begins the process of making our hearts like His. We need to seek and submit to that transformation. That is how we love God with our emotions, by submitting them to Him, allowing Him to mold them.

God created us with emotions so we should not ignore them or pretend we don’t have them. That is denying how God made us. But we should also not be controlled by them. Emotions are like the cautionary lights in our vehicles. They let us know when something is wrong. They can also encourage us and make us feel good, but they should not control us. We should not obey our emotions to be led by them, but instead obey God and be led by Him. It is important to acknowledge them for what they are, no more no less. That is how we love God with them, by using them correctly so that our lives honor Him.

How do you feel about emotions? Are you led by them or do you even acknowledge that they exist? What can you do to begin honoring God with your emotions? Ask Him to show you how you should change, to guide you into a more loving and honoring lifestyle. Part of that change comes through the “renewing of your mind” which we will talk about in a few weeks.