“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.’
-Mark 12:29-30
The heart functions as your filter to the world. What you believe about others and yourself comes through your heart. It impacts what you think, say, and do. It’s no surprise that Jesus lists the heart first in the Greatest Commandment. Beyond your actions and words, what people see in your everyday life is your heart. It most accurately portrays what’s at the center of your life.
In this passage of Mark, a man comes to Jesus to ask him what the most important commandment is. Jesus says, “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.” The man repeats these words to Jesus to show his understanding. Jesus knew the man didn’t simply understand the Greatest Commandment with his words, but with his heart, so he said, “You are not far from the kingdom of God.”
When you love the Lord with your heart, soul, mind, and strength, it is clear to the world who’s at the center. From the way you speak, the decisions you make, to the way you interact in relationships and with strangers, your heart reflects the Lord.
So, what does your heart reflect? How can Jesus become Lord of your heart?
The order of God’s Kingdom is upside down from the order of the kingdom of this world. Even more so, the pattern to God’s kingdom is incompatible with the pattern of this world. It is our responsibility as a church to know the difference or we will mistakenly live into the wrong kingdom. The world’s kingdom leads to brokenness, emptiness and regret, but God’s Kingdom leads to healing, wholeness and blessing. Knowing that, how should the church interact with the world? Jesus teaches that we are to live in the world, but not like the world. God has designed an order between the church and the world. God asks us to be compassionate and broken towards the world and by doing that we make it easy for people to enter into a relationship with Jesus.
In a world filled with anxiety from financial instability, job stress, and personal struggles, it seems impossible to escape the constant worry that overtakes our minds and hearts. However, in the Kingdom of God, peace is meant to be the norm. While external stressors will always exist, our response to them can be transformed. As believers, we're called to seek God's Kingdom first, laying down our burdens and embracing His peace. To practice this peace, we can engage in prayer and journaling, focusing on God's promises and allowing the Prince of Peace to calm our anxious hearts.
Raising a family on Godly values can be challenging, but it’s crucial to keep God at the center. Regardless of your upbringing, God’s purpose and design for families remain constant. Reflect on God’s mission for families, find your allegiance, identity, and calling in Christ, and connect with a spiritual family for support. Joining a group can help you build a strong spiritual foundation for your family. Consider finding a group through 12stone.com/groups this week.
How forgiveness is handled in the Kingdom is different than how it’s handled outside the Kingdom. We know the Kingdom of God has a King, a culture, and a calendar, but it also has a code. The world’s code tells us to “get even.” But the Kingdom Code of Conduct instructs us to approach life differently. For followers of Jesus, the Kingdom Code that governs relationships is forgiveness. But sometimes forgiveness can be complicated. We need to forgive, and we need to be forgiven.
The Kingdom of God is a love story set in the backdrop of war. A biblical approach to understanding spiritual warfare is necessary as a Christian to know how to fight against the devil’s schemes. A lot of people struggle to believe in Jesus, but it’s more difficult to deny the power of evil in this world. That is spiritual warfare! For some reason the idea of evil and supernatural forces of darkness makes us feel uncomfortable! It is important for us to learn how to fight these supernatural forces with Kingdom power and Biblical principles! God has already won the war, but we need to equip ourselves to know how to fight our battles!
We are in a complex season as a country, marked by division and political segmentation. By focusing on the Kingdom of God, which Jesus emphasized throughout His ministry we can take steps to live wisely. Jesus proclaimed the nearness of God’s Kingdom, gave us authority to make disciples, and taught us to pray for its coming on earth as it is in heaven. Our responsibility is to commit to living out a Kingdom perspective in every aspect of our lives—relationships, careers, finances, and more—living to reflect Heaven’s reality here on earth.
As we’ve learned in past weeks of our hymn series, hymns are used to pass faith from one generation to the next. "How Great Thou Art" is a hymn that follows a roadmap to show us many different attributes of God and His faithfulness. We know that God is love. We know that He is Truth, but sometimes we can forget about His power, His presence, and His promises. Our lives are filled with different seasons and circumstances where we get to see different characteristics of God in fresh ways. This hymn reminds us of that!
Over the past few weeks, we have explored hymns that have influenced past generations. Today, we focused on a hymn that is shaping our generation and those to come, proclaiming the promise of new life in Jesus. It's easy to say yes to Jesus, yet many of us remain trapped in our old ways. Our sins imprison us, but Jesus has paid the ultimate price for our freedom, allowing us to find new life in Him. Key reflections from today include: recognizing that following Jesus transforms us into new creations, understanding that sin is a destructive force, not a trivial amusement, and realizing that our goal should be to draw closer to Jesus, not just to avoid sin. This week, spend time in prayer, confessing the worldly things that hold you back. Identify your personal "jail cell" and lay it at the feet of Jesus.
In difficult times, finding true joy can be challenging, often leading us to either ignore our emotions or try to control everything to prevent bad outcomes. Neither approach is effective. Instead, we can learn from King David in the Psalms, who shows us a different path: he wrestles honestly with his feelings, speaks God’s truth over them, and eventually, his feelings align with the truth he believes. To experience true joy in tough circumstances, we must turn to God's truth and love, finding joy in who God is rather than in changing our circumstances.
