“Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.” Luke 10:27

With All Your Heart

With God it’s a matter of heart issues that mean the most. Where is your heart today? Are you loving people with God’s love, or are you loving others with leftover fragments of time and energy? Do you ever feel like you are doing so many things at once and not doing even one of them very well? I know I do, and this is when I need to stop and realign my heart with God. Whatever you do today, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for man. If you are doing something or spending time with someone, make it your best! If you’re making a meal, take the time to fully put yourself into it, whether it’s a dinner made from scratch or a frozen entrée. Add your love in the mix and see how people respond. Light the candles even if you are having boxed macaroni and cheese. What will show through is your love, reflecting from God the Father. Simple acts of love can go a long way.

“You have made known to me the path of life; You will fill me with joy in Your presence, with eternal pleasures at your right hand” (Acts 2:28). Whatever pathway we are on, we can let God fill us with His joy by being in His presence first. If we rush past our time with Him, it’s no wonder we can feel like we are spinning our wheels and going nowhere fast.

In the spirit of Christmas, let ‘s try to slow down a bit and purposely finish well. If you are stressed because you have to buy someone a gift and your heart is not in it, the gift can be meaningless. Maybe let go of doing something just out of habit and see what happens. I think the Lord would be more pleased with us this Christmas if we all had a little more Mary in us and a little less Martha. Maybe instead of a store bought gift you could give a beautiful card and write that person a letter or note sharing why they are special to you and how much you care for them. In doing so, your love will again shine through—God’s love for the world and His people, and His loving kindness.

In this busiest season of the year, let’s not forget to spend time first with our Lord. After all, it’s His birthday we are celebrating, and He says, “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28).

“Lord sometimes in our busyness, we can really miss the heart of what is truly important.  Help us to take time to slow down and let Your perfect love shine through us onto others. “