'Are You ALL IN?'

“‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’” ~ Jesus (Mark 12:29-30)

What does it mean to love God with all our hearts? Typically, we think of the heart as the place of our emotions or good feelings toward another. That couldn’t be further from what Jesus was talking about. Hebrew, which the Old Testament was written in, has a unique understanding of who we are as human beings. The Biblical understanding of the heart is that it is the seat of the will. It is where our executive faculty is – our decision making, our commitments, our creativity-- that which makes each of us uniquely us. The heart is the core of our being that directs the rest: mind, strength, and soul. And here is the kicker: If you do not choose, someone else will choose for you. Not to choose is a choice not to follow.

Joshua asked a very important question of the Israelites when they were about to cross the Jordon into the Promised Land.

“…serve the Lord. But if serving the Lord seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your ancestors served beyond the Euphrates, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.” (Josh 24:14-15)

Joshua went on to tell them what would happen if they served other gods - what life would be like. He also told them what life would be like if they served God. He laid the choice before them. It was decision time. Even though they had followed Moses, seen many miracles of God, and been safely brought to the Promised Land, they had to decide once more who they would serve. Following God is not a one-time decision, but a decision we have to make again and again. In fact, we have to make it with ALL OUR HEARTS.

Do you take seriously your superpower – your ability to choose? Are you stepping into your executive authority to choose God? We are not given the option of a half-hearted or mediocre decision to follow Christ. It is about the core of our being. It is the commitment that will fundamentally set the direction of our lives. Jesus calls us to make a decision to be ALL IN or not in at all. There is no middle ground, so “Choose this day whom you will serve. As for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.”

Blessings in 2022,

Jonathan