Emboldening Women To Move Past BarriersSample

The Call to Love God

When we remove the limitation that the Great Commandment is gendered, we are ready to absorb God’s words as he always intended them. Learning to love God is the first step (see Mark 12:30). This begins with developing a heart for God. When the word heart appears in the Bible, it most often refers to “our truest inner selves.” Loving God with all your heart is about letting your love for him determine how you live. 

To take Jesus up on his command to love him with all your heart will require a focus on God, so that you don’t lose heart and give up. Prayer, an ongoing conversation with God, is key and immersing yourself in God’s living Word builds the endurance you need to keep going. Gathering a team of trusted godly people—beginning with Jesus—will keep you moving through the hardest parts of life. Developing a heart for God requires hard work, but it’s how you build strength and add depth to your spiritual life.

Loving God with all your soul means loving him through all aspects of your life. This doesn’t mean you will always feel glad. As your tears fall, your cries directed to the living God prove your faith, your belief that he will ease your suffering. Trusting God completely, loving him with all your soul, means your life is anchored in the promise that he is with you now and that one day he will make all things new. This may seem impossible, but rejoicing in God’s promises, celebrating God’s faithfulness, and crying out to him in lament now, and every day, is loving him with all your soul. 

Loving God with all your mind means acknowledging that God transforms your mind, revealing himself to you through his Holy Spirit in ways you could not understand on your own. The Bible tells us that our mind means our thoughts and perceptions. As we allow the Holy Spirit to change and renew our minds, we adopt God’s point of view. This renewing is a sacrificial process of dying to our previous reasoning. We are living sacrifices whose transformation of our thought-lives begins with the hope of the gospel and continues as we invite Jesus to do his work of restoration in our lives. 

Loving God with all your strength is the undeniable outer working of God’s power inside  you. We are warriors for Jesus! The power of God himself is available to anyone who is a Christ-follower. Being a strong Christian woman can be a challenge where strength is a considered positive for a man, but negative for a woman. The truth is, before the fall of mankind, God called men and women to fight forces of evil together. Ladies, gospel work requires fierce soldiers. Our enemy doesn’t play nice. But we are up to the task because we are called by God, equipped by the Spirit, and compelled by Christ’s love to use the fortitude God dispenses with gusto. Are you battle ready? There’s no such thing as “too strong” for Jesus-women. Let’s find our power in his presence, our force travailing in prayer, our stance in his sacrifice, and our might in his victory!

Respond

How have you praised God during different seasons of your life? What promises of God give you the most comfort and encouragement?

How has your understanding of the world around you transformed since you put your faith in Jesus? 

How would you describe your love for God? How does this love impact your heart, your mind, your soul, and your strength?