Devotions Archive Archive: 1999 | 2000 | 2001 | 2002 | 2003 | 2004 | 2005 | 2006 | 2007 | 2008 | 2009 | 2010 | 2011 | 2012 | 2013 | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 Search Archive Print This Article All in all Friday, March 8, 2002 Mark 12:28-31 One of the teachers of the law came and heard them debating. Noticing that Jesus had given them a good answer, he asked him, "Of all the commandments, which is the most important?" "The most important one," answered Jesus, "is this: '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.'" Parsing simple words became political sport in the 90's, words like "is" and "sex." How about "all"? Just how much is "all"? In Psalm 139 David asks God for help in knowing himself: "Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts." He knows me better than I know myself. All of me. When I surrender control of my life to God he peels layer after layer off me. Ego, irrational emotion, physical tension and illness disappear. What I'm left with is more "all" than what I started with. The healthy stuff underneath is more whole, more "all" than the broken self-made junk on top. God will take all of me, but he wants what he made in the first place. That belongs to him. When I love him with my "all" he sorts out my thoughts, my feelings, my desires, my goals, my commitment. He puts me through screens and sieves, turmoil and trouble, teaching me to recognize the imago dei within me. Like a chef reducing a superb sauce on his stove, God takes all I give him and purifies, refines, perfects me in his holy fire. Search me, Lord, and know me. Lead me in the way everlasting. "; Add      Edit    Delete