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Authors: Misty Edwards
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for meditation. It is the doorway to the spirit of man, where God dwells. God gave you an imagination, and the goal is not to overcome it but use it. You will never overcome it, because it is part of your human design, and He created you with the capacity to visualize the Scripture. I will talk more about this in the coming chapters.
I want to love Him with all of my mind, where He becomes my favorite thought. I want Him to be the place I naturally go when I am driving in my car or when I am quietly “just thinking.” I want Him to become my daydream, my natural thought, my first thought and my last. I want Him to be my resting place, and I want to be His. In all honesty, thinking about God is often an effort. He is not a natural thought. I say, “Lord, help me to love You with all of my mind.” The mind has to be renewed, and it is a seedbed where what we sow, we reap; but it is a continual sowing and reaping. He will help us, though, if we ask. He will help us, and He sees the reaching even before we attain the fullness.
H EART
The mind is where it starts, and the heart is like the undercurrent. Now let me say, it is difficult to try and perfectly distinguish between the mind, heart, and soul. In the Scripture sometimes these terms are used for the same thing with subtle distinctions. I don’t want to spend too much time trying to define each of them and their differences, but with broad strokes I will continue.
We are to engage our emotions in our love for God. God wants more than dutiful service. Our love for God touches our emotions without succumbing to emotionalism. We have a significant role in determining how our emotions develop over time. We can cultivate greater affections for God by setting our hearts to grow in this sphere. We can “set” our love or affections on anything we choose. Our emotions eventually follow whatever we set ourselves to pursue. This involves determining that the primary dream of our hearts is to walk in the first commandment.
As we change our minds, the Spirit changes our hearts and our emotions. We set our hearts first on loving Jesus and causing others to love Him. “Because he has set his love [heart] upon Me, therefore I will deliver him” (Ps. 91:14). David made a choice to set his heart to love God. He determined to love God: “I will love You, O L ORD , my strength” (Ps. 18:1).
Our emotions are a very important and powerful part of our life. Thus, God wants to be loved from this part of our life. The heart must be kept focused and clean with diligence. We keep our hearts by refusing to allow our emotions to be inappropriately connected to money, positions of honor, wrong relationships, sinful addictions, bitterness, offenses, and so on. Proverbs 4:23 says, “Keep your heart with all diligence, for out of it spring the issues of life.”
Christianity is an ongoing encounter of love with a Person. Possessing fierce dedication will not keep us steady unless we encounter love at the heart level. We resist being entrenched in vain imaginations that cause our emotions to be progressively stirred by various lusts. We express our love to God by resisting emotions contrary to His will. To love Him with all of our hearts is to have undivided affection, giving Him exclusive possession of our hearts. It is from the heart of man that passion rises, and it is the passion of man that drives him. We want to be obsessed with Jesus, preoccupied with passionate pursuit of Him. This takes a supernatural working of the Holy Spirit. We cannot do this on our own, but we can set our hearts on the journey.
I want to actually feel affection for Jesus when I close my eyes and talk to Him. Even the desire to love Him is evidence of love, not the absence. Our desire for Him is a supernatural gift, and even though our hearts often feel dull or preoccupied with other loves, if we set our love on Him and set Him on our hearts, over time our hearts will be filled with the fire of love. It takes
I want to love Him with all of my mind, where He becomes my favorite thought. I want Him to be the place I naturally go when I am driving in my car or when I am quietly “just thinking.” I want Him to become my daydream, my natural thought, my first thought and my last. I want Him to be my resting place, and I want to be His. In all honesty, thinking about God is often an effort. He is not a natural thought. I say, “Lord, help me to love You with all of my mind.” The mind has to be renewed, and it is a seedbed where what we sow, we reap; but it is a continual sowing and reaping. He will help us, though, if we ask. He will help us, and He sees the reaching even before we attain the fullness.
H EART
The mind is where it starts, and the heart is like the undercurrent. Now let me say, it is difficult to try and perfectly distinguish between the mind, heart, and soul. In the Scripture sometimes these terms are used for the same thing with subtle distinctions. I don’t want to spend too much time trying to define each of them and their differences, but with broad strokes I will continue.
We are to engage our emotions in our love for God. God wants more than dutiful service. Our love for God touches our emotions without succumbing to emotionalism. We have a significant role in determining how our emotions develop over time. We can cultivate greater affections for God by setting our hearts to grow in this sphere. We can “set” our love or affections on anything we choose. Our emotions eventually follow whatever we set ourselves to pursue. This involves determining that the primary dream of our hearts is to walk in the first commandment.
As we change our minds, the Spirit changes our hearts and our emotions. We set our hearts first on loving Jesus and causing others to love Him. “Because he has set his love [heart] upon Me, therefore I will deliver him” (Ps. 91:14). David made a choice to set his heart to love God. He determined to love God: “I will love You, O L ORD , my strength” (Ps. 18:1).
Our emotions are a very important and powerful part of our life. Thus, God wants to be loved from this part of our life. The heart must be kept focused and clean with diligence. We keep our hearts by refusing to allow our emotions to be inappropriately connected to money, positions of honor, wrong relationships, sinful addictions, bitterness, offenses, and so on. Proverbs 4:23 says, “Keep your heart with all diligence, for out of it spring the issues of life.”
Christianity is an ongoing encounter of love with a Person. Possessing fierce dedication will not keep us steady unless we encounter love at the heart level. We resist being entrenched in vain imaginations that cause our emotions to be progressively stirred by various lusts. We express our love to God by resisting emotions contrary to His will. To love Him with all of our hearts is to have undivided affection, giving Him exclusive possession of our hearts. It is from the heart of man that passion rises, and it is the passion of man that drives him. We want to be obsessed with Jesus, preoccupied with passionate pursuit of Him. This takes a supernatural working of the Holy Spirit. We cannot do this on our own, but we can set our hearts on the journey.
I want to actually feel affection for Jesus when I close my eyes and talk to Him. Even the desire to love Him is evidence of love, not the absence. Our desire for Him is a supernatural gift, and even though our hearts often feel dull or preoccupied with other loves, if we set our love on Him and set Him on our hearts, over time our hearts will be filled with the fire of love. It takes
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