“Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.

“And when the LORD your God brings you into the land that he swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give you—with great and good cities that you did not build, and houses full of all good things that you did not fill, and cisterns that you did not dig, and vineyards and olive trees that you did not plant—and when you eat and are full, then take care lest you forget the LORD, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. It is the LORD your God you shall fear. Him you shall serve and by his name you shall swear. You shall not go after other gods, the gods of the peoples who are around you—for the LORD your God in your midst is a jealous God—lest the anger of the LORD your God be kindled against you, and he destroy you from off the face of the earth.

“You shall not put the LORD your God to the test, as you tested him at Massah. You shall diligently keep the commandments of the LORD your God, and his testimonies and his statutes, which he has commanded you. And you shall do what is right and good in the sight of the LORD, that it may go well with you, and that you may go in and take possession of the good land that the LORD swore to give to your fathers by thrusting out all your enemies from before you, as the LORD has promised.

“When your son asks you in time to come, ‘What is the meaning of the testimonies and the statutes and the rules that the LORD our God has commanded you?’ then you shall say to your son, ‘We were Pharaoh's slaves in Egypt. And the LORD brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand. And the LORD showed signs and wonders, great and grievous, against Egypt and against Pharaoh and all his household, before our eyes. And he brought us out from there, that he might bring us in and give us the land that he swore to give to our fathers. And the LORD commanded us to do all these statutes, to fear the LORD our God, for our good always, that he might preserve us alive, as we are this day. And it will be righteousness for us, if we are careful to do all this commandment before the LORD our God, as he has commanded us.’"—Deuteronomy 6:4–25

Introduction

There are times in our lives when something happens and it changes a part of our lives. Once, I used a rubber mallet to tap a section of drywall back into place, and the mallet went through the wall. After I cooled off, I thought, “I won’t do it that way again!” In fact, that is usually how I approach projects around the house. I do it the wrong way first, and then I try to learn from it and change my approach. I know just enough about doing house projects to get myself in trouble, so I usually only attempt little house projects. I would never try to renovate my whole house.

But that is exactly what Deuteronomy 6 is calling us to today. Not just home improvement, but total rehab from the foundation up. It is meant to change not just a part of our lives, but our whole lives.

The message of Deuteronomy is at the heart of the message of the Old Testament, and Deuteronomy 6 is at the heart of Deuteronomy. So, you could say the passage we will look at today is at the very heart of Israelite life and existence. It’s the core of the covenant of love between God and his people.

Deuteronomy 6:4–9 serves as a summons for the people of God to love the LORD their God with all, holding nothing back. There are six commands in these verses: hear, love, teach, talk, bind, and write. All of the commands carry the force of imperatives, but they do not all bear the same weight. Verses 4 and 5 are the earth-quaking epicenter of Israel’s life. These two verses are the big idea, while verses 6–9 are the reverberating explanation of the idea.

Here’s where we’re going today:

First we’ll look at the commands or demands in verses 4–9. Then I want to show how these demands are aimed at delight, but it will take some deliberation to apply the demands toward delight, and there will be distractions and dissonance along the way. But in the end it all shows how we are all desperate for and dependent on Jesus.

Let’s pray.

Demands

Let’s look at the first two commands: hear and love.

Verses 4–5 contain the famous phrase that is known as the Shema which literally means “listen!” or “hear!” So, Israel is commanded to listen intently to the word of the LORD. The next phrase is tricky to translate from the original, so that’s why you might see some slight differences depending on what translation you have. The ESV reads “Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one.” Literally the words here are “Yahweh our God; Yahweh one.”

By the way, many of you probably know this, but just in case you don’t, throughout the Old Testament when you see the word LORD in all capital letters, it almost always is a translation for YHWH or Yahweh, which is God’s personal covenant name with his people.

Upon first reading it could sound like this text is just arguing for monotheism—worshiping one God instead of many gods. It is true that Israel was to have only one God as opposed to many. But in this context, there is more to it than that. God was calling them to have exclusive allegiance to Yahweh alone in all the ways of life, as we are about to see.

But they were not simply to commit allegiance to a tyrannical, oppressive beast of a Lord. What kind of God is this LORD who is one?

Kids, if I asked you to tell us what God is like by using some words from the Bible, what would you say? You would probably say, “God is great, and there is no one like him” (2 Samuel 7:22). Or you might say, “He is good and loving and faithful.”

For the LORD is good; his steadfast love endures forever and his faithfulness to all generations.—Psalm 100:5

Or maybe, “Our God is in the heavens; he does all that he pleases” (Psalm 115:3). Or maybe “I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like me, declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times things not yet done, saying, ‘My counsel shall stand, and I will accomplish all my purpose’” (Isaiah 46:9–10).

So this God is one. He is God alone. He is unified in his purposes. He has integrity in his character. No one and nothing comes close to comparing to him in his goodness and righteousness and justice and mercy and love. This God is one of a kind.

And he is Israel’s God. Look at verse 4 again: “The LORD our God.” Moses is speaking to the entire community of God’s people and saying that not only is there only one God who is totally amazing and absolutely unique, but that this God is our God. Worship him alone!

This amazing LORD—Yahweh—is our God in the church today. This God is the kind of God who is deserving of our full worship and devotion. In fact, our full devotion is what he demands.

Let’s now look at the demand to love. Look at verse 5: “You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.” The word for love here is the general word for love that is used in many places throughout the Old Testament. Here it means human love toward God. We have read this phrase so many times here and in the gospels that it can become so commonplace. But let’s slow down and take in just how consuming Israel’s love for God is supposed to be. Moses says tells the people to listen and take heed of God. You are to love the LORD your God with “all your heart,” with “all your soul,” and with “all your might.”

If you just read these phrases together, you get the general sense that God wants it all, but it still feels kind of vague. So let’s dig in a little deeper. And as we dig in, let’s notice that these areas overlap and build on one another, moving from the inside out like concentric circles.

The innermost circle is the heart. It’s the inward emotions and intellect. Moving out from there is the soul, or being. It’s the personhood or will in living life. Moving out from there is the might. It’s not just your physical strength, but it’s all the resources you have available to employ. It’s your physical strength, spouse, children, car, house, job, and the Triune Ts—time, talents, and treasures. It’s everything you’ve got.

Yahweh wants his people to love him beginning all the way in to the innermost part and moving all the way out into every femtometer of human existence. And he wants it in that order, beginning with the heart.

To emphasize this, look at verse 6: “And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart.” Loving God from the heart is so important to God. You might think that’s a strange thing to say. Here we are in the Old Testament in Deuteronomy 6, and Moses has just repeated the Ten Commandments to the people. Maybe you haven’t thought about the heart much when you are reading the Old Testament. I want to encourage you to go back, read it again, and see that the Old Testament emphasizes over and over that God does not want a just-gut-it-out obedience. No, God has always wanted loving obedience from a heart of faith. That’s why Proverbs 4:23 says, “Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life.” And Jeremiah 17:5 reads, “Thus says the LORD: ‘Cursed is the man who trusts in man and makes flesh his strength, whose heart turns away from the LORD.’”

What would this all-encompassing love for God, flowing out from the heart, look like? We see it in the four commands in verses 7–9: teach, talk, bind, and write. These verses flesh out what it looks like for God’s command to be on the heart and embraced in all of life.

Parents are instructed, “teach [God’s word] diligently to your children.” This makes sense. If you are so mentally engaged and emotionally invested in who God is, his love for you, and what he has commanded, you will pass it on to the next generation because you have been so deeply moved by it. The idea here is that parents would teach the word of God so intensely and intentionally that it is impressed upon the hearts of their children.

Sometimes you hear parents today say, “Well, I want it to be real for them, so I will just let them find their own way and decide for themselves what they think about God.” Now, of course, children can’t ride into heaven on their parents’ backs. They must trust in Jesus for themselves. But to leave it so open-ended is not how you make it real for them, and it is not what we have going on here.

Instead, God’s word was to be coming at the children from all sides so that the reality of who God is and what he has done would be inescapable. They would have every opportunity to hear and embrace his truth and to love him and walk in his ways. If they turned away from him, they would be without excuse.

And it was not just the parents who were to be in on this. The whole community of faith was to put God and his covenant of love on display for the next generation. There is a progression here in verses 7–9 like the one in verse 5. The progression flows out in concentric circles again.

God’s people are commanded to talk of God’s commands while sitting, walking, lying down, and rising up. These normal pattern of your inward life. Then they are to bind the commands as a sign on the hands and frontlets between the eyes. This is moving to your outward life, what you do and what you set your sights on or focus on. Then they are to write them on the doorposts of the houses and on the gates [of the city]. This is moving out further to include all the available resources of the family and community.

I’ll try to flesh this out with some examples in a minute. For now, just see that all of life in every life and in the life of the community was to proclaim the supremacy of God in all things. Sound familiar? Our church mission statement is “We exist to spread a passion for the supremacy of God in all things for the joy of all peoples through Jesus Christ.” [Thanks to Jason DeRouchie and Dan Block for helping me to make some of these connections here—if I blew it in any way, I own that part.]

So we exist to live out Deuteronomy 6. We know this is true because Jesus and Paul agree on the matter. Jesus was asked by a scribe,

“Which commandment is the most important of all?” Jesus answered, “The most important is, ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.”—Mark 12:28–31

The Apostle Paul agrees:

For the commandments, “You shall not commit adultery, You shall not murder, You shall not steal, You shall not covet,” and any other commandment, are summed up in this word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.”—Romans 13:9–10

So we understand that God’s demand for us to love him with all and to love others as ourselves fulfills the law and still applies to us today. But what about the joy? What about the delight?

Delight

Right here in Deuteronomy 6, we see God’s concern not only for his glory but also for Israel’s delight. God promised his people that they would enter in and possess a land. It is a land “flowing with milk and honey” (v. 3). It’s a prosperous land (see v. 10 and following). It’s got good cities, good things in good houses, good food, and good water. It’s not just adequate; it’s abundant.

The same is true for their very lives. They will fear the LORD their God. It will go well with them, and chapter 5 adds “and with your children after you.” But more than that, they will live long and greatly multiply in number. This is the language of abundance and delight. God didn’t just command obedience. It is for their good because he really cares about them too. God didn’t just promise some kind of bland, neutral form of well-being. No, seeing and loving God as supreme—and following his commands—really does produce joy. God wanted them to enjoy all these things and increase their delight in him.

God’s promise of the prosperous land and the long and prosperous life for great multitudes of people was real. He fulfilled these promises for the people of Israel, even though only a small portion of Israel would respond to him in faith and love.

The fulfillment of God’s promises to Israel is a picture and a pointer, too. It is a display of God’s faithfulness to keep his promises in history, and it is also a pointer that he will keep his promises for the future.

God promised through the prophets that he would establish a new covenant. He would give his people new hearts and write his law on their hearts. That’s us, church!

God has given us the Holy Spirit to dwell within everyone who trusts in Jesus. The Holy Spirit compels us and empowers us to trust, love, and obey God from the heart. What a gift! We are not our own. We have been bought by the precious blood of Jesus, so we can and should glorify God in our bodies (1 Corinthians 6:19–20).

In other words, by the power of the Holy Spirit, love the Lord your God with your all. Love Jesus with all. We know we don’t yet hear and love and obey God the Father like his son Jesus did, but there will be a day when we see Jesus and be like him. And we know that Jesus has already gone before us as the only one who has perfectly loved the Father. His death and resurrection plead our case before the Father when we don’t love God as we should.

For those of us who are in Christ, there will be a day when we will enter our promised land, our promised dwelling place. We will have a life of pleasure and prosperity forevermore in his presence, among all the multitude of heavenly hosts and all the saints. That time is promised but not yet fulfilled. But we live in light of the promise of that day, and it changes everything. God’s promises propel our faith into love and obedience to God and make it a delight.

A couple of weeks ago, someone let us borrow a cabin about three hours northwest of here. JoAnna and I took the kids up there. The owners told us, “If you see it, use it”—even about their pontoon boat. I had never driven a pontoon boat before, but I was eager to get take it out on the lake. The kids asked, “Daddy, do you know how to drive that thing?” I said, “No, but I’ll figure it out.” So while the kids were swimming, I checked it over. I made sure we had the life jackets. I checked the gas level. I made sure I knew how it was tied to the dock so I could tie it back up properly. While I was checking it over, I noticed that the engine was tilted and the propeller was out of the water. I expected that, but I thought that when I turned the key, the engine would automatically change its position and drop the propeller into the water.

I was wrong. What I discovered was that you can have a good engine and the right propeller, and you can even insert the key and turn it on, but unless that propeller is in the water, that pontoon is staying put. If the pontoon had stayed put, we would have missed the enjoyment of riding in that pontoon. We would have missed the wind on our faces, riding the wake of the speed boat passing by, watching the bald eagle soaring above, the laughter of my three older children (and the tears of my youngest)—all because Daddy did not put the propeller in the water. Thankfully, I found the switch that tilted the engine and allowed the prop to go into the water, and man, did we enjoy that ride.

Just think. Here we are in the land of 10,000 lakes. What if there was a pontoon boat at every dock of every lake, just sitting there, waiting to be enjoyed. The lake is calling, but no one is dropping the propeller into the water. To enjoy the pontoon boat on the lake, you have to drop the propeller.

I did a little research and found out that pontoon propellers are different from speedboat propellers. They are designed for pushing the water and maneuvering this style of boat, and they are especially helpful when the boat is carrying heavy loads.

Picture yourself—and me—as boats. We would not be speedboats. We would be pontoon boats. All of us are carrying heavy loads, or we have carried heavy loads, or we will at some point. How will we push water and maneuver around in the lake of life? Well, we have to have the right propeller. What will propel us and help us to maneuver well in the twists and turns of our little life lake? It’s the promises of God, which are all yes for us in Christ Jesus.

Just think. We have 10,000 reasons to bless the Lord. What if at every dock of every home in the church, we would drop our propeller and be propelled by God’s promises into faith-filled love and obedience to God through our Lord Jesus? We have pleasures forevermore awaiting us at his right hand, and right now we have the promise of his presence with us wherever we go in this little lake. We do not need to fear or be dismayed. He will strengthen us and help us and uphold us with his righteous right hand. Don’t we want to live and love God like that? And don’t we want our children to love God and live in light of all God’s promises, too? I know you do.

Now, when I say “our children,” I mean our children as parents, but I also mean the children of our church. If you are a member here—whether or not you are a parent—there is a very real sense in which the faith of the children of our church is our collective responsibility. Primary responsibility falls on parents to disciple their own children, which is why Paul writes, “Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord” (Ephephians 6:4). Moms, you are way in on that too.

But we have committed together as a congregation to “watch over one another in brotherly love,” and this includes the children. That’s why in child dedications we look into those little eyes and say, “Ben, together with your parents who love you dearly, and this people who care about the outcome of your faith, I dedicate you to God, surrendering together with them [the parents and the people of Jesus] all worldly claims upon your life in the hope that you will belong wholly to Jesus Christ forever.”

We are in this thing together. Parents, singles, old, young, rich, poor, married, divorced, widowed, healthy, sick, energized, tired, big, small, strong, weak, sorrowing, rejoicing—we all drop our propellers into this lake together and depend on God’s promises to float us safely over to the celestial shore. And we want to take as many of our children with us as possible—both biological children and spiritual children within the church. That’s why I love seeing so many of you investing in the lives of your own children and other peoples’ children in Sunday School classrooms, at the park, and in small groups. It’s a beautiful thing. And it’s not always easy.

Raising up the next generation to find 10,000 reasons to bless the Lord with all their heart in a way that spills over into their very being and controls the use of all their resources for his glory is not an easy task. It requires thought, or deliberation, in the church and home.  

Application

Deliberation

Let me try to make some application here. First, it must be on our hearts. For example, “when you sit in your house” to watch a movie, how do you decide what to watch? When you watch it, how do you watch it? How do you then teach your children or others to watch it?

What if you are going to watch the movie Frozen with your kids? I realize not all of you would watch that movie, and I am not suggesting that you necessarily should. But if you did, how would you assess the movie in light of loving God with all your heart and mind and being and resources?

Well, at least you could talk about the differences between what has become the main theme song, “Let it Go,” and what I think should be the main theme song, “For the First Time in Forever.” “Let it Go” keeps Elsa with a cold, dark heart. “For the First Time in Forever” seeks to break into that cold heart with love and change it from the inside out, and in the end it finally does. There is a redemptive theme there. You can find it, if you look for it. It’s not perfect by any stretch, but if you are going to watch this movie, you can seek to love God by seeing it in light of his redeeming plan of love for his own. There will be some movies that your love for Jesus will make you say, “No way. I’m not watching that.”

What would “a sign on your hands and frontlets between your eyes” look like? How could loving God be pushed into the corners of your actions and what you set your sights on? Well, on the way to baseball the other day, I asked my boys, “How do you think we could seek to love God with all our heart, soul, and might as we play baseball tonight? How could we show that we love him in our actions and in what we focus on tonight?” They weren’t exactly sure. And that’s okay.

But we talked about it and remembered that God is the one who gave us arms and legs to play. He gave us eyes to see the ball coming so we could hit it or catch it, depending on which you are supposed to do at the moment. We talked about the fun we would have, how we could serve others, and how trusting God in whatever happened could help our attitudes to honor him on the field. It’s more than just about winning the game. At the end of the night, we bowed and prayed out on the field, and we thanked God for everything that I had talked to the boys about beforehand. You could also look for ways that God may have helped you to love him during the game. You could increase your delight in him and for his son Jesus by praising him for it.

What would “writing God’s word on the doorposts of our house” look like? Some of us keep ourselves so busy that we are hardly home at all. Some of us are homebodies. Either way, does your house give off the aroma of Jesus to your neighbors? One way you could seek to love the Lord with your household resources is to have a consistent time of family worship. Family worship is simply coming together as a family to worship God in your home—responding with awe and wonder and affection over who God is and what he has done. You read his Word together, you pray, and you sing. Nothing too complicated.

This little time together can make a big difference in setting the course for employing your resources to love the Lord Jesus in other realms of your family life. If this is new to you or you want a little help, visit the table in the Commons today. We made up a little pamphlet we would like to give to you.

If your children are all grown up and out of the home, or if you are a single person, your worship in your home will be smaller. It might be with roommates, or it might be by yourself. But it can still be a way to write love for Jesus on your doorposts so that your home will give off his aroma and serve as a launching pad for loving Jesus and your neighbors when you leave your home.

These are just a few of examples. Now you take it home and deliberate over it. What would this look like for you—whether or not you have children—to love the Lord your God with all you heart, soul, and resources in the throes of everyday life?

As you seek to do this, you will find that there are many distractions, and sometimes there are even some dissonance.

Distractions and Dissonance

Distraction happens when there are other things that draw your attention away from what is really important.

Moses warned Israel about this. In Deuteronomy 6:12, he said they needed to “take care lest [they] forget the LORD” because he knew that the prosperity of the land could become a really big distraction (called an idol) to his people. He also warned them not to go after the gods of the peoples around them (v. 14). These distractions would be their demise. And that is exactly what happened.

Do you think we have any potential distractions to choke out our love for God today? Yes, we do. God has richly given everything for us to enjoy (1 Timothy 6:7). But we could get entrapped by all the good things, and they could become a distraction to us, leading us away from loving God. All I want to say here is that you should consider this: How can I love God supremely in loving this thing God has given me to enjoy, whether it be Chipotle or a Chihuahua? Ponder that. Pursue it. Enjoy the thing. Enjoy God as the Giver of it. This is not always easy, even with good things. But it is possible, and it might keep you from doing or enjoying some things you shouldn’t too.

Dissonance happens when this vision of loving God runs into my own sin or the sins of others.

In other words, there is something I want to think, feel, do, or invest my resources in that I know would not be pleasing to God. That reality comes into a head-on collision with the vision of loving Jesus with all. That moment is like two symphonies in two different keys being played at full volume at the same time. They do not harmonize with one another. There is dissonance. How will this dissonance be resolved? Stay on the path of loving God, hold to his promises, and surrender your desire for the other thing.

Another form of dissonance happens when you see the sins of others. I know some of you know the pain of children who have turned away from the Lord and no longer have any taste for heaven’s joys. You see this vision of loving God with all, and you have questions that create dissonance in your heart. You know this vision of loving God is the path of true delight, but you see your children choosing the path of destruction. You wonder, “Did we fall short of Deuteronomy 6?”

Maybe some of you did. Maybe you surrendered to Christ later in life after your children were out of the house. Or maybe you feel you weren’t intentional enough about impressing God’s word on their hearts. Or maybe you did all you could with the resources you had at the time, but your children still went astray.

There are two things we need to note. First, any efforts at teaching your children to love the Lord were really important. They were not in vain. Yet you cannot make your children love the Lord through your own effort. Only God can change the heart.

Second, if you did truly fall short in your parenting, right now you have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous (1 John 2:1).

If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.—1 John 1:9

Come to him, find rest for your souls, and seek to point them to Jesus now. Friends, we are all in a state of desperation and dependence on Jesus.

Conclusion

Desperation and Dependence

This all feels overwhelming to me. Honestly, some days I wake up and don’t even feel like a Christian. How am I supposed to love the Lord my God with everything I have when I feel like I don’t have anything? That overwhelming feeling—that uncomfortable lump in my throat—causes me to have a proper sense of my weakness, a sense of my desperate need for a Savior.

God had this desperate need in his sights before Moses penned Deuteronomy. Whenever we seek to love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, and might, we find that we are weak and needy. We can’t do it completely. We are limited creatures who are dependent on our Creator. And that, my friends, is exactly what God wants us to get in the very depths of our hearts.

No matter where you might find yourself today, be reminded of the promises of God. They are all yes for you in Christ. Depend on them to carry you through. Pursue the promises of God to propel you to the other side of distractions and dissonance into faith-filled loving obedience and all the way to delight in God and his Word. Learn to delight especially in your desperation and dependence on the Lord Jesus to do in you that which he commands of you by the Holy Spirit and to forgive you and keep you in his righteousness when you fall short and return to him in repentance and faith.

At its core, seeking to love God (and seeking to love Jesus) with all your heart, soul, and might is really seeking to know God himself and his love for you in Jesus. The next time you seek to love him through watching a sunset, in family worship, in a business move, in baseball, in the middle of massive grief, when you receive a no answer to your prayer, or when you feel your great need for Jesus, let your heart respond and overflow with gratitude. Stretch forward with faith and love for him.

God is initiating his love toward us all around us every day. He did this most completely in sending his own Son so that by his death and resurrection, we might truly live. God is the Giver and Initiator. We are the receivers and responders. How will we respond to his love? Let’s pray.

Sermon Discussion Questions

Outline
1.Demands
2. Delight
3. Distractions and Dissonance
4. Desperation and Dependence

Main Point: God’s demand from his people is that they hear his Word and love him with all their heart, soul, and might. The promises of God propel the people of God into a life lived in love to God in response to his love for them.

Discussion Questions
1. What are the main commands in Deuteronomy 6:4–9 that drive all the other commands?
2. Why is it important that following the other commands flows from a heart filled with love for God through Jesus Christ?
3. Why is it important to note that this love is initiated by God and not us?
4. How do these verses in Deuteronomy apply to Christians in the church today?

Application Questions
 1. In what ways is following God’s command to love him with all your heart, all your soul, and all your might not be a delight to you? How could it become a delight?
2. What areas of your life are expressions of your love for God? How could you praise him for that evidence of grace?
3. What areas of your life are not expressions of love for God—in your heart and mind, in your being or personhood, or in your resources or all you have?
4. How could you gain encouragement from others and encourage others in the church to love God with all from the heart? Think of people to pursue in each category and pray for grace to go for it, by the power of the Holy Spirit.
5. In what ways does your relationship with Jesus Christ make all the difference as you pursue love for God and when you fall short of it?

Prayer Focus: Pray for eyes to see the beauty of God’s love for you in his commands and the fulfillment of them in Jesus. Pray for the heart to love God through Jesus Christ with all you are in specific areas of your life to the glory of his name and for your delight in him.