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With All Our Strength

Mark 12:30 (ESV)
30  And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ 

When we think of strength, we think of exercise, the discipline of hard work, and a building of physical stamina.  Strength is something we measure.  I could do 30 situps last month, now I can do 40.  I could do 20 minutes on a treadmill, now I do 30 minutes.  
We can not only "do" something, but we can "do more" than we did before.  "Look what I can do" is something our children use to say. 

To love God with all of our strength implies "doing", and to be sure there is an element of "doing" in our relationship with God.
For years I've been guided by the passage Paul wrote to the Philippians.  
Philippians 2:12-13 (ESV) 
12  Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling,
13  for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.

There is in the passage the both/and element of our relationship with God.  He is at work in us...therefore, we can work it out.  What God works into us, we can cooperate with and work out.  So, what does God work into us?
We know that God is good, he is merciful, kind, full of grace, just, wise, and most of all love.  The character of God is such that he works into our lives those things that represent Himself, and as such we work those things out in our heart, soul and mind - and do it with all our strength!
We don't do these things legalistically - through rules, conforming to a cultural pattern that leaves us inwardly unchanged.   To love God with all our strength - from my point of view - is to recognize that he is at work in us to build Godly character and if we cooperate with him we'll see the fruit of that in everyday things.

Think about that.  In everyday life our ethics reflect the character of God, or don't.  Are we honest?  Do we live with a godly sense of morals?  Do we treat others as we would have them treat us?  Do we care for the poor?  the disadvantaged?  Do we seek the welfare of others over ourselves?
These are not things I HAVE TO DO to be a Christian; but rather, they "inform" my soul, my mind, my heart and lead me to a place where I can say I WANT TO DO THESE THINGS...and that is the place that transformation begins to take place.

To love God with all of our strength becomes a means to focus my attention on what God can and will do to shape his Spirit in a cooperative way into my life.  It is still ME that is alive, but it is HE that is at work making that life full, abundant, free.

Ephesians 3:14-21 (ESV)
14  For this reason I bow my knees before the Father,
15  from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named,
16  that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being,
17  so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love,
18  may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth,
19  and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.
20  Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us,
21  to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.  

Peace

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