I have been fascinated with this word lately.

All.

That is a big word, and a scary word. I think of when someone demands, like my son Luke, “give it all to me”—that is quite a bold statement. Or the bank robber: “give me all of your money.”

I did an exercise where I circled the word “all” in the Bible for months on end while reading it and how many circles I ended up with.

So many!

One verse that contains the word “all” is the Greatest Commandment:

“And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind” (Matthew 22:37).

All of your heart. That is a huge request.

Another one is:

“Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding” (Proverbs 3:5).

We are to both love and trust the Lord—with all of our hearts. (Trust and love, I’ve written about them before. Please check it out here.)

This makes me both a little concerned and little hopeful all at the same time.

I’m concerned that I am not doing it, and I’m not all that familiar with how to do it and what the ramifications could be if I don’t do it.

I’m hopeful there is a way to do it. God wouldn’t command it otherwise.

Our time and our calendar have to be involved, don’t you think? If I could say “no” to more things in order to say “yes” to more of God I know this would be a move in the right direction, because those I love the most I want to spend the most time with. Yet I struggle with this and I am not sure I love God the most, let alone with all of my heart.

The pressure is there to:

1. Perform “Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men” (Colossians 3:23) and
2. Provide “But if anyone does not provide for his relatives, and especially for members of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever” (1 Timothy 5:8).

But, wait, hey, what am I supposed to do?

I need to constantly remind myself: “….love the Lord your God with all of your heart…..”

Maybe I need to revisit this exercise I mentioned earlier in order to get my priorities straight and gain more clarity on my God given priorities.

As we can see, God wants us to love Him with all of our heart. How you are doing this?