Learning to love God with our minds

Jesus did not leave it up to His disciples in how there were to follow Him or how they ought to love Him.  Jesus was very clear that if we chose to follow Jesus then I must deny myself and follow Him.  This basically means I give up my rights in how I think I ought to live and submit to Jesus as my Lord and begin to do life His way.  In Matthew 22:37-40 "Jesus replied: 'Love the Lord your God with all your heat and with all your soul and with all your mind.  this is the first and greatest commandment.  And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.  All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments."  Within this blog today my focus will be on how we are to love the Lord our God with all our mind.  Unfortunately I sense this is an aspect of loving God that gets the least amount of attention.  We emphasize loving God through our worship, our service and having an intimate relationship with Him.  This is all true and must be a huge emphasis within our faith relationship with God.  There are times we are encouraged to step out in faith and do not over complicate the issues of faith.  That knowledge puffs up but love builds up.  This is all true but must be place in the proper context.  Here are three basic reasons why loving God with all our minds are so important.  First, we are created in the image of God, this means we have the ability to think, discern and to decide.  This is the use of our minds.  Second, the call to worship Jesus is to be done in Spirit and in truth, John 4:24.  God is as concerned that we worship the right way meaning we know who we are worshipping and the why we are worshipping.  God is not pleased with mindless worship.  Third, the call to discipleship is that we might become more like Jesus, to have the mind of Christ.  This can only happen by the consistent discipline of our minds to put off what is not consistent to the Word of Jesus and to put on the very thoughts, attitudes and teachings of Jesus.  This is the why we must engage the mind.  I easily could have given another three reasons of why we must love God with all our minds.  Now I need to give your three basic how to love God our all my mind.  Again I could give more but these will give you an idea of how to love God.  First, I must hide God's Word in my mind and heart.  This is the process of developing our thinking according to the Bible rather then the philosophy of the world around us.  This will be an ongoing process throughout our life time.  Romans 12:2 "Do not be conformed any longer to the pattern of this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind...."  Second, I encourage to read many good books that discuss a variety of topics on the Christian faith.  God has blessed the kingdom with many greater authors that help us to understand God, His ways, how to pray, how to witness, how to live victorious and etc. that we can use our minds to love God more and more.  Third, there is a great need in the church to learn how to connect the mind and heart.  There are many who have their hearts in the right place but they need greater knowledge and understanding.  Then there are many who have their minds in the right place but their lives do no reflect rightly what they actually know.  There is no conflict between the heart and mind of God.  Throughout the Word of God there is much teaching on the heart and mind which means it ought never be an either or proposition but ought to be a both and.  God wants us to love Him with all our hearts and He wants us to love Him with all our mind.  The pursuit of the Spirit will help us to keep these two in proper balance. 

May God bless you with a spirit of wisdom, revelation and understanding as you love Him.

Pastor John