Number ONE!

Matthew 22:36-38 AMPC

Teacher, which kind of commandment is great and important (the principal kind) in the Law? [Some commandments are light-which are heavy?] [37] And He replied to him, You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind (intellect). [38] This is the great (most important, principal) and first commandment.

Loving God is the whole reason humankind were created.

As believers in Jesus, we are not under The Law, but under the New Covenant of Grace. Yet the words of Jesus state that the first commandment is the most important - it means God first, He must be number One!

Loving the Lord with ALL that we have and are - that's what counts.

Perhaps the most crucial part of this command is loving God with ALL our mind.

The fight for our attention and intellect is pivotal. Satan has provided some very tasty morsels to distract us and hence detract us from worship.

As I read the passage above, I asked myself: "Where does my mind rest? What preoccupies me? Am I loving Jesus with ALL my mind?"

Do I spend too much time just surfing when I could spend more time learning or in prayer?

Sadly, if I worked out the percentage of my time with God and compare it with other things, it certainly wouldn't be ALL my mind!

Perhaps that's why I am so often stressed and tired and lacking in joy?

Isaiah 26:3-4 AMPC

You will guard him and keep him in perfect and constant peace whose mind [both its inclination and its character] is stayed on You, because he commits himself to You, leans on You, and hopes confidently in You. [4] So trust in the Lord (commit yourself to Him, lean on Him, hope confidently in Him) forever; for the Lord God is an everlasting Rock [the Rock of Ages].