AN IMPORTANT COMMAND - All Our Daily Bread Daily Devotionals for 2026

Our Daily Bread - Thursday, February 4, 2016
by RBC Ministries

Details

AN IMPORTANT COMMAND

READ:

And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment.
-Mark 12:30

THE BIBLE IN ONE YEAR:
Exodus 34-35
Matthew 22:23-46

When asked by a lawyer to identify the most important rule in life, Jesus replied, "You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength" (Mark 12:30). In those words, Jesus summed up what God desires most from us.
I wonder how I can possibly learn to love God with all my heart, soul, and mind. Neal Plantinga remarks on a subtle change in this commandment as recorded in the New Testament. Deuteronomy charges us to love God with all our heart, soul, and strength (6:5). Jesus added the word mind. Plantinga explains, "You shall love God with everything you have and everything you are. Everything."
That helps us change our perspective. As we learn to love God with everything, we begin to see our difficulties as "our light and momentary troubles" - just as the apostle Paul described his grueling ordeals. He had in mind a "far more exceeding and eternalglory" (2 Corinthians 4:17).
In the advanced school of prayer, where one loves God with the entire soul, doubts and struggles do not disappear, but their effect on us diminishes. "We love Him because He first loved us" (1 John 4:19), and our urgent questions recede as we learn to trust His ultimate goodness. - Philip Yancey
Once earthly joy I craved, sought peace and rest;
Now Thee alone I seek, give what is best.
This all my prayer shall be:
More love, O Christ, to Thee. - Prentiss

The most treasured gift we can give to God is one that He can never force us to give - our love.

More From Our Daily Devotional Archives

Open Heavens
for Friday, December 6, 2013
by Pastor E.A Adeboye

CONDESCEND!

After seeing their plight, hearing their cries and feeling their pains, God came down to rescue the Israelites from Egypt. Our God is a mobile God. He comes down to deliver His own. As high as God is and even though He has His throne in Heaven, yet He condescends to meet the needs of His children on earth (Isaiah...More

Open Heavens
for Monday, February 17, 2014
by Pastor E.A Adeboye

DIVINE CHAMPION 2

Yesterday we discovered that our Lord Jesus Christ is the number one champion and that He makes His people champions. We also saw that a divine champion is a person raised up and supported by God.

One attribute of a champion is strength. The divine champion is one who receives divine strengthening....More

Open Heavens
for Sunday, January 25, 2015
by Pastor E.A Adeboye

EX-CHAMPION?

Although it is an unpleasant experience to be a defeated contender, becoming an ex-champion is a much more grievous experience. When you are not yet a champion, only a few people pay attention to you. But by the time you become a champion, you will be on the radar of many people, including your enemies. A champion has...More