My name is Mike Bickel, I am the Director of the International House of Prayer in Kansas City. A bunch of you have tuned in with us through the internet. We have a live webstream of 24/7 worship and God TV is showing it around the world and we are always so grateful for that. We want to say thank you for a moment for that.
Anyway, here in Kansas City, one of the things we have done for the last 18 years of doing 24/7 prayer is that we have focused on the first commandment. That is such a significant statement that Jesus made. Matthew 22:37 and 38, I’ll say that again, Matthew 22:37 and 38, He says, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, your mind your soul, your strength.” You know the verse, And He said, “This is the first and the great commandment.” Now that was a new idea. The idea of loving God with all of our heart. This is what God wants.
If you go back to the original context in which God spoke that word, you would have had to go back 1500 years before Jesus came in His ministry. It was Moses. The children of Israel, when they were brought through the Red Sea, and now they’re in the wilderness, and they stand before God at Mt. Sinai. The mountain is shaking and trembling, and fire, and they are terrified of God. They are thinking, “The holy, terrifying God.” They are bowing down. And then the Lord speaks later, and says, “This is what I want from you. To love me with all of your heart.” This must have been a shock. They would have thought, “Serve you?” “Yes.” “Love you? What kind of God are you with so much power, so much majesty, so much might? And what you want first and most is for weak people like us to love you?”
What a remarkable reality. Now, this commandment to love God – it doesn’t start with us – loving God with all of our heart. It actually starts with God. Because God loves us with all of His heart first. Because God loves with all of His heart – that’s who He is, that’s how He relates. So, He is saying to His people, “Because I loved you with all my heart and all of my mind. This is the kind of relationship that I want between us. Yes, I want your service, but way more than that, I want your heart.” So, when Jesus stands before Israel and says, “This is the first and great commandment to love with all of your heart.” It’s giving us insight into how God thinks and feels and how He relates to us, and how we really function best as human beings, that we are in this pursuit of loving with all of our heart.
That is just a word of encouragement. Lord, bless your people in Jesus’ name.