What Does Loving God With All Your Heart Actually Look Like?

"Love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength." Mark 12:30.

I have heard this verse repeated more times than I can count, and I would guess a lot of you have too. It gets quoted so often it almost becomes background noise. But repetition was never really my issue with it. My question was always the same one. What does that actually mean? What does it look like in a person's everyday life?

Considering how much God brings up love throughout scripture, I started thinking through what loving Him with everything actually requires. It means reading His word. It means being in conversation with Him through prayer. It means worshiping Him. It means cultivating an actual relationship with Him, the same way I would with anyone else I love.

The very next verse, Mark 12:31, gives the second half of what Jesus called the greatest commandment. Love your neighbor as yourself. Those two were never meant to live apart from each other. Loving God with everything you have was always connected to how you treat the people around you.

So loving God also means loving His people the way He loves us. That means being generous with them. Giving them grace and mercy. Extending forgiveness. Being selfless, even when it costs you something.

What it doesn't mean is being perfect or completing a checklist. Our grace, our mercy, our forgiveness were never meant to be based on our own performance. He is not giving us an annual performance review. I still have not figured out why those even work the way they do in the first place. Someone shows up right behind you, watches for a little while, and it basically comes down to whatever they decide to say. That is not how His grace works.

Praise be to God for that.

If you have spent any time waiting to earn what He already freely gave you, this is your reminder. His love does not run on a scorecard. It renews every single day, whether you had a good day or a hard one.

Peace, Love and Joy always. Infinite Faith and Favor | kharisco.com