Luke 10:25-28 Loving God with All of Our Hearts
Format for Your Devotions
Instructions: Do not read my example devotion until you have completed your own devotional time in the scriptures. Reading my thoughts first may limit your own understanding. Let the Holy Spirit speak to you alone before looking to see what anyone else has to say, whether it is me, a Bible commentary, or a friend. Let God speak to you before you let another person speak to you. I have provided a format, but modify it to fit your needs. For example, I usually combine my application and prayer together talking to God about the application to my own life. You can go through this devotion process mentally, speaking out loud, or in writing as you wish. Don’t worry if you are not following this process exactly. Sometimes, I add extra information and sometimes I emphasize one part more than others. However, you should always think about what you learn about God from this passage.
Step 1: Pray–Ask for the Holy Spirit’s guidance first of all and that God may reveal the lessons that He wants you to have that day. Request that God protect you from Satan’s distractions (and the devil will try to distract you whether it is pinching the baby or putting you to sleep). Ask to see God more clearly as you read and think about the passage.
Step 2: Read the passage–Read to get an overview of the information first. Then start looking at specific parts after the first reading. You may read a larger or smaller section than I have here because you do not have to follow my organization at all.
Step 3: Understand the passage–You can summarize, ask and answer your own questions about the passage, visualize the story, analyze the characters, and relate this passage to other scriptures and personal experiences.
Step 4: What does this reveal about God?–What do you learn about the Father, Son, and/or Holy Spirit from this passage?
Step 5: Apply this to your own life.
Step 6: Prayer
My Example Devotion: August 27, 2018 Luke 10:25-28
Note: In the devotion examples, I leave my questions and thought processes in the text because I am trying to demonstrate that a devotional time is a dialogue with God about what you are reading from His word. As such, any questions or ideas that you have should be explored by talking it out with God. These example devotions are not my attempts to teach you what the meaning of a particular scripture is. They are an attempt to teach you the process of devotions, which is a combination of prayer and Bible study where you explore ideas with God as you read His word.
And behold, a lawyer stood up to put him to the test, saying, “Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?” He said to him, “What is written in the Law? How do you read it?” And he answered, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.” And he said to him, “You have answered correctly; do this, and you will live.”
(Understanding the Text) The lawyer’s answer shows that the Pharisees and Scribes and Sadducees already knew that the ten commandments were about love. They already understood that eternal life came from loving God and other people. This was not a new concept that Jesus was introducing for the first time. The problem seemed to be that they knew this in theory, but in practical terms, they did not understand how to apply these principles in their daily lives.
(Revelation of God) Jesus promises that if we love God and love our neighbor, we will live. It’s interesting that the lawyer was testing Jesus by asking how to have eternal life, yet Jesus did not answer him. Instead, Jesus turned the question back on the lawyer who answered it. He asked what the law said. Here the law refers to the first five books of the Bible. In other words, Jesus was asking what the scriptures said. When it comes to questions of eternal life, Jesus points us to His word.
(Understanding the Text) It is interesting that there are four ways to love God. We must love Him with our heart. That is with our emotions. We must love Him with our soul which means in our very being. We must love Him with all our strength. That means we must not hold any part of ourselves back. We must completely commit to Him. We must love God with our mind. That means we intellectually love God.
On the other hand, there is only one dimension to loving others. We must love them in the same way we love ourselves. We do not put ourselves first, but hold them as equal with us. We think of their needs at the same time that we think of our own.
(Application / Prayer) My application to myself is that this is the heart of the gospel. The law says to love God with everything in my being from my intellect to my emotions to my personality/character to my effort. The law says to love other people equally with myself. I don’t have a right to put myself over them, but I should never put myself under them either. It’s all about my relationships to people and most of all to God. I am too selfish and damaged to give You the love that You want from me. Transform me so that I can love You in every way.