Heart, Soul, Mind, and Strength

God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.  --Genesis 1:27

Have you ever gone out in the country at night, away from all the city lights, and looked at the night sky?  You can see millions of stars that seem to go on forever.  Sometimes, when I gaze at the universe, it makes me feel small and insignificant--one of almost 8 billion people on the third planet from an insignificant star, one of billions of stars in one of trillions of galaxies.  Yet all of these galaxies, all of these solar systems, all of these people--everything was created with a word.  That word was spoken by a God who loves us deeply, passionately, without equivocation; a God who lives within the heart and soul and mind of every believer.

Knowing this, that the God of the Universe created me, and loves me without end, what does He require of me?  One of the Pharisees in Jesus' day asked that very question.  Jesus 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." (Luke 10:27).  Have you ever stopped to think why Jesus would answer in this way?  I'm not talking about the battle of wits the Pharisees were trying to have with God-in-a-man, or how He was so adept at side-stepping their attempts to trap Him with His words.  I'm talking about the truth that was spoken by Jesus in this statement: we can do nothing more holy, more righteous, more god-like, more loving or respectful or pleasing to Him than to love God with all of our heart, soul, mind and strength.

Why is this so?  I believe I know the answer.  He wants us to love Him in this way, because this is how He loves us, and we are created in His image.  We were made to be like Him.  "For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them." (Ephesians 2:10).

So how can we know what God is like?  How can we emulate His heart, His mind, His soul, and His strength?  The only way we can truly know God is by studying His word, the Bible.  Yes, we can confirm experientially what God says in His word, but we cannot change the word of God by our limited, sometimes sinful, experiences.  I would like to point out a few verses that show us what His heart and mind and soul and strength is like.

His Heart and Soul
Ezekiel 36:26 says, "Moreover, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh."  God wants to take away our hard-heartedness, and replace it with a soft heart.  The term "of flesh" here is the same as we would use in the phrase "my own flesh and blood," when speaking of a close relative.  Several scriptures use a similar term, "my bone and my flesh" (see Genesis 29:14, Judges 9:2, 2 Samuel 5:1 and 19:13--in all these examples, people were expecting grace and favor because of the familial connection).  So when God takes away the stony heart, and replaces it with a new one, it is as if He endowed us with His own heart, or welcomed us into His family.

Gazing upon the heart of God is like studying astronomy--thousands of scholars working thousands of years could not fathom it all.  But there is one man that Scripture said had the heart of God, and that was King David.  David was said to be "a man after God's own heart", not because of David's righteousness, because David sinned many times.  Rather, it was because God had chosen David (see 1 Samuel 16), and David answered God's call.  The least of Jesse's sons was destined to be the greatest of Israel's human kings; and when God through Samuel sought him out and anointed him, David took his anointing seriously.

We, too, were chosen by God.  "For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast." (Ephesians 2:8-9).  It was God who reached out to us first so that we could respond, either by accepting His call and His anointing, or by rejecting Him completely.

The Bible also says that David was led by the Spirit of God.  "Then Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him in the midst of his brothers; and the Spirit of the Lord came mightily upon David from that day forward." (1 Samuel 16:13).  We, too, must be led by the Spirit of God.  This does not mean we must be perfectly righteous for all time.  It does mean that our world-view is a spiritual world-view; that our foundation is a spiritual foundation; and that our goals are generally and specifically spiritual goals.  We are to glorify God in everything we do, and when we fail, we must pick ourselves up, accept the consequences, and keep on trying to glorify God.

Finally, the Bible says that David spent time alone with God.  After Samuel anointed him king, David went back to his job as a shepherd.  He wrote many of the Psalms we find in the Bible during this time of preparation.  In the same way, when Jesus was on the earth, he often got away by Himself to pray.  How much more should we zealously protect alone-time with God!  We must not waste the time that God gives us, but rather turn off electronic media, and redeem the time by getting to know God first-hand through Bible study and prayer.  It's what David did.  It's what Jesus did.  How many more examples do we need?

His Mind
1 Corinthians 2:16 says, "For who has known the mind of the Lord, that he will instruct Him?  But we have the mind of Christ."  As we begin to know God's heart, He will give us insight into His mind.  Paul said:

Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant and coming in the likeness of men.  And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross.  --Philippians 2:5-8 (NKJV)

God thinks of us all the time.  Jeremiah 29:11 says, "For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope." (NKJV).  We, therefore, should think of Him all of the time.

Finally, believers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable and worthy of respect, whatever is right and confirmed by God's word, whatever is pure and wholesome, whatever is lovely and brings peace, whatever is admirable and of good repute; if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think continually on these things [center your mind on them, and implant them within your heart].  --Philippians 4:8 (AMP)

 His Strength
God is all-powerful, yet He became a man--a man unlimited in power, but limited in strength.  Jesus slept, because He was tired.  He ate, because He was hungry.  He had all the physical limitations of a man, but spent all of His strength doing good.  He taught men about God.  He healed the sick, raised the dead, caused the blind to see and the deaf to hear.  And when all of His strength was ebbing away in death, His last prayer for us was, "Father, forgive them."

He literally spent all of His strength so that we could have access to God.  By His sacrificial death, our sins were atoned for; we can stand spotless before the Throne of God because "God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life." (John 3:16).

Knowing what we know about the heart and soul of God, the mind of God, and how His omnipotent strength was applied, how can we not follow Him?  How can we not love Him with all of our heart, with all of our soul, with all of our mind, and with all of our strength?  We must, so that the world may know Him through us.