Love with Understanding

Mark 12 is one of the verses quoted many times, from the New Testament, which sums up the Christian life:

To love him with all your heart, with all your understanding and with all your strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself is more important than all burnt offerings and sacrifices.”

Some other verses say “mind” instead of “understanding.”

Oh, we fall in love with Him with all our hearts when we realize our need for him and the sins we’ve done, and we receive his forgiveness.  That feels so good.

Oh, we love him with all our strength when we stand firm, we pray without ceasing, we lift our hands in worship when we don’t feel like it… That takes effort but we do it.

But oh, do we love him with all of our understanding?

That’s difficult because we don’t understand so many things!

But here we are told that He requires it, and he desires it more than offerings and sacrifices.

In fact, we cannot do the second half of this command – love our neighbor as yourself – unless we understand His ways.

Lord, we pray for the ability to love you with our understanding and our minds, that part of us that reasons, analyzes, criticizes and judges – laying it all down in favor of knowing YOU – the good, holy, and righteous God that you are.