Love With All Your Soul

NOT MY WILL BUT YOURS BE DONE

Love God with all your soul (Matthew 22:37). The first time “soul” is used in the Bible is in Genesis 2:7 when God is breathed into man the breath of life, from which man was made alive. Your soul was made by the breath of God, giving you inherent value! You don’t exist for yourself, but for God because He gave you life (Colossians 1:16). Therefore, loving God with all your soul is a reverence, knowing you exist because of Him and for Him. Psalm 42:1-2 reads, “As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, my God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God…” Your ultimate soul satisfaction is found in living for God. He is your life’s greatest purpose and without Him, you will always come up empty.

Paul in 1 Corinthians 8:6 teaches, there is “one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things and through whom we exist.” If He is your life’s greatest purpose, then to love God with all your soul is to make Him the true Lord of your life! “**Lord” means “master” or “he who has the power of deciding.” Many people have prayed the “Sinner’s Prayer,” but haven’t obtained the full gift of salvation found in making Jesus the Lord of their life. Making Jesus the Lord of your life is submitting to Him, yielding deciding power over your life to God.

Jesus modeled this for us in the Garden of Gethsemane saying, “not my will, but yours, be done” to the Father, moments before being arrested, and eventually crucified (Luke 22:42). Jesus traded His will for the Father’s in that moment because He loved Him radically and because He loved you radically. We must follow Jesus’ example by preferring His will over our own. If you radically love Him with all your soul, you will obey Him (John 14:15)!

PRAYER

Father, I exist because of You. Thank You for Your breath of life. I choose to live for You alone. Not my will, but yours be done in my life, Lord. I choose to give You all the glory. Amen.

APPLICATION

• What ares of your life have you not submitted to God?
• Take time to repent for this and submit yourself completely to The Father!