This year I decided I really wanted to work harder at growing the 'fruits of the spirit' in my life so I've spent a month on each and it's actually been so trippy how stuff has come up that has given me the exact 'fruit muscle' to exercise!
Mark 12:30- ‘And you shall love the Lord with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.’
Heart. Out of all these 4, this is probably where I have struggled the most. There are many aspects of our heart and many parts that we can hold back but God wants us to love Him with our whole heart. But in order to love Him with our whole heart, every single little piece of it has to be surrendered to Him. Every relationship- God has to come first. As much as it can be tempting to give Him all except keep a part where something like romance is concerned, we have to surrender that to Him as well (and in particular because who we end up marrying is SO important to everything else in our life). If we truly want to follow His plan for our life, we have to keep Him at the centre but we can only do that when we give Him our whole heart. (common theme of 'surrender' pops up again haha) Another thing I want to mention is hurt. It is more subtle as so many people think it is okay to dwell on past hurts, they think that it is justified to hold onto the pain from them but if you don’t forgive the hurt then it holds onto part of your heart, stopping you from giving it all to Him. Jesus died on the cross to set us free from the pain of sin in this world, so we have to give that part of our heart to Him so we can experience the freedom He promised. I've been guilty of this part too, and some events or situations I've had to re-give my heart and my pain back to God multiple times because it can keep popping up but He is the only One who can exchange that hurt with love so that I have a whole heart to offer Him.
Soul. Brevard Childs defines it by stating that ‘a person is a soul.’ So to love Him with all our soul is to love Him with our self. Act in a way that pleases Him, and don’t indulge in things like gluttony and drunkenness that don’t glorify God with our bodies. It's always so fascinating to see how when we follow God's 'rules' we are actually the ones who get rewarded! When I am in a good routine of sleeping well, exercising, eating well, and managing my time well with prioritizing Him, it's amazing how much better I am at dealing with whatever is going on, and how much better I feel!
Mind. Our minds are so powerful and it is so important that we love God with these powerful weapons! Every thought should go under monitor to make sure it is positive, God honouring and uplifting. Thoughts can be a very dangerous part of us that is easy to not glorify God with because a lot of thoughts are never said out loud and are secret so it can be very easy to think if nobody knows, it will be fine or that they don't affect us. I have struggled with this one also as I am often tempted to dwell on 'what ifs?' or future plans or dreams that don’t necessarily glorify God because they pull my attention off Him and onto my selfish desires. So sometimes several times a day I have to make the conscious choice to replace those thoughts with God's truths and the things that I do have around me. Temptation comes in different forms but no matter what it is, our mind can be in control of the situation no matter how strong it is. So when we are faced with anything that tries to pull us away from Jesus, it is a conscious choice to glorify or 'love' God by using our minds to overcome. We can do all things through Him and He can help you overcome anything!
Strength. Every day we do a whole lot of different activities that involve action which uses strength. So how can we love God with all this ‘strength’? By doing everything to the best of our abilities- trying as hard as we can, being cheerful and positive as we carry out even the most mundane tasks, and not doing things that God wouldn’t approve of. Loving God with everything is such a big topic, and for everyone, it looks a bit different, but I want to encourage you to surrender to Him so you can love Him with your heart, your soul, your mind, and your strength.
