Heart, Soul, Mind, and Strength

Of all the passages in Scripture, one of the most well-known is the Shema:

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 strength. — Deuteronomy 6:4-5

It’s significant enough that Jesus referenced it when asked about the greatest command. He said,

‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. — Matthew 22:37-38

It’s a beautiful command — one meant to deepen our relationship with God. However, when we really think about loving God with all our heart and all our soul and all our strength and all our mind, it can feel overwhelming. How can we even do that?

Let’s examine each part to better understand it and hopefully make it a little less intimidating. Although we’re meant to love God with our whole being, with everything we are, God was very intentional about naming these specific areas. Our heart is the center of our intentions and emotions. Our soul is the center for our state of living and being. Our strength includes our passion and might, and our mind is the center for intellect and reasoning. All these areas should be directed toward God. Our direction reveals what we cherish and value. As Christians, that should first and foremost be God. If we are pursuing Him above all else, our desires and actions will reflect that. Ultimately, that will lead to a life of freedom.

Perhaps one of the reasons why the Shema can feel so overwhelming is that we tend to think we have to come up with the energy to accomplish it on our own. Though we do need to practice certain disciplines in order to deepen our relationship with God, we can’t do it without His help. Thankfully, He has given us the Holy Spirit as our helper and guide. We also tend believe that once we’ve become a Christian, we should have everything figured out. Most of the serious struggles should be gone. That we should be perfect. But if we’ve been a follower of Christ for any length of time, we know that’s not true. Nor is it true that we will ever reach that point at any time in our life on earth.

• We will always be in the process of sanctification — growing but never arriving — until we are in Heaven with Him.

As we are sanctified, there is a renewing of our mind. This renewing includes focusing on and being filled with the truth of God’s Word. We do this by hearing the Word, reading it, memorizing it, and meditating on it. As we fill our minds with truth, the lies we’ve believed will begin to unravel, our convictions will be strengthened, and we’ll gain confidence to stand against the Enemy. First Corinthians 2:16 shares an incredible gift we have as Christians:

we have the mind of Christ.

In fact, chapter 2 is filled with quite a few gifts regarding our mind. Through the Spirit, the things of God are revealed to us (v. 10), we are able to understand (v. 12), and we are able to judge wisely (v. 15).

Our hearts also need renewal. It is a common thing to hear people say “Follow your heart.” However, Scripture tells us that

the heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it? — Jeremiah 17:9

Certainly, without the Spirit’s guidance, our hearts cannot be trusted. When fighting against the lies of the Enemy and moving toward freedom, we must remember that knowing (our mind) and believing (our heart) God’s truth go hand in hand. That is where faith comes in. Proverbs 4:23 tells us,

Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it.

God wants His truth to be fully rooted in our lives as a deeply personal and intimate knowing.

Loving God with all our strength is not easy when you consider that we are pretty weak creatures. So how do we love God in that way? Exodus 15:2 says,

The Lord is my strength.

The psalmists also declared that the Lord was their strength (Psalm 18:1; 22:19; 28:7; 118:14). Nehemiah 8:10 goes on to say that the “joy of the Lord” is our strength. Considering these verses and others, it makes it much sweeter and simpler to love the Lord our God with all our strength when God Himself is our strength.

The part of the Shema about loving God with all our soul may be the most difficult to comprehend. We can more easily picture loving Him with our heart, mind, and strength. But the soul is less concrete. It is often considered our entire being — the deepest part of who we are. The psalmist painted a beautiful picture of what it means to love God with all our soul:

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. When can I go and meet with God? — Psalm 42:1-2

When we experience deep relationship with God, there is nothing else our soul longs for more than Him. Our soul will be dissatisfied with anything less.

While we are always in the process of sanctification, with God’s strength and the renewing of our mind and heart, we can live a life of freedom that is characterized by our love and obedience toward God. Even as we grow in loving Him, His Spirit helps us to love Him more. Ultimately, we are able to love because He first loved us (1 John 4:19).

Excerpted with permission from You Can Be Free by Kirby Kelly, copyright Kirby Kelly.

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Your Turn

Do you want to love the Lord with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength? Let’s stop and pray today that God would fire up our faith as we seek to follow His greatest command to love Him that way! The Shema isn’t something we can do on our own, so ask God for His help and encouragement! ~ Devotionals Daily