Yesterday at church we were challenged to “love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.” Luke 10:27 Now that’s a whole lot of love!

What does it look like to love god this way?

As I started to reflect on my own personal life, I began to realize that I am not loving God with my everything. Not all the time. Not with every ounce of me. To love God this way demands everything I’ve got. It means I wake up every single morning and want to spend time with Him. It means He is constantly in my thoughts and on my mind. Why, it even means I bring Him up in my conversations with others. When you love someone with your whole heart, it shows. Others can see.

Loving God may be a struggle and the reason, I believe, is because we are in a fight. You see, we have been created to worship. God Himself has made us this way. And oh, how prone we are to wander. It is easy for us to set our gaze on the things of this world…on the things we can see.

idols are anything that steal our attention

We often think idols are golden carven images from long ago. In our mind, we are fools to think we don’t all struggle with idols. Anything that is a first priority above God is an idol. A child. A relationship. A job. You name it. Here’s a list to help prod your heart:

• What do you absolutely have to get done today? Does it include God in the mix?
• Our your thoughts set on things above…eternal things? Or instead, or you thinking about your plans for the weekend, your job or your next vaca?
• Do you do all for the glory of God? Or do you strive for the attention instead?
• What do you think about?
• Take a look at your time…how is it spent?

To love God is a command. It demands obedience and a surrender to Him to take our thoughts captive and turn our attention upward. Let’s get in the fight today and be more aware of the looming battle.