With my whole heart I seek You; let me not wander from Your commandments! Psalm 119:10
Today’s verse is an incredible one, because it goes along with what Jesus said is the first and greatest commandment:
You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the first and great commandment. Matthew 22:37-38
If we cleave to that first commandment, everything else will fall into place. If we love Him with our whole heart, the natural effect will be that we seek Him with our whole heart. When these two things are aligned, we will naturally follow His commandments. It won’t be hard to walk in His ways and follow Him obediently, because we love Him and seek Him whole heartedly. As a result, obedience isn’t a chore. Abstaining from sin isn’t hard. It will naturally flow from us because we are aligning ourselves with His will, putting on the armor of God, utilizing His power to fight sin, and the fruit of the Spirit will be evident in us and our lives. We will experience a willing obedience, not the feeling of being torn between the old and new nature.
This is a fundamental building block of Christianity. The reason so many Christians struggle is because they aren’t building on the right foundation. We should a) Always look to the cross. Remember the tremendous love our heavenly Father demonstrated by sending His Son to save us from our sins. Accept Jesus as our own personal Savior, and cleave to that relationship, relying on it throughout every moment of every day b) love the Lord our God with all our heart, all our soul, and all our mind. Service, obedience, submission, spreading the gospel, and everything else that living for Him entails need to come as a result of prioritizing our relationship with Him. But too many people try to walk the walk without giving Him their whole heart first. We have to properly prioritize this on a daily basis.
We get into trouble when we give Him part of our heart, part of our attention, only a fraction of our time, putting things before Him, loving other things equally to Him, etc. That is when Christianity becomes a struggle, not because it is actually hard, but because we are complicating it by not setting our priorities straight. Then life gets in the way, other things occupy our minds and time, God doesn’t have first place in our life, etc. The result is that we slowly slip away and lose the strength that only He can provide. Then it becomes a struggle to keep His commandments and abstain from sin; that is no easy feat, and we absolutely cannot do it on our own. When we have shoved God aside and not made Him a priority, we no longer see the fruit of the Spirit pour out from us. Instead of it being easy and our natural tendency to obey Him, we feel a struggle deep within. Satan sees his opening and creeps in, and it’s a slippery slope from there. You know you are really far gone when you don’t even feel the struggle between following Him and turning to the sinful lifestyle you have chosen, one that doesn’t include Him anymore. Don’t let it go that far.
Whether you’re doing well spiritually at this point in your life or struggling, the answer is the same: love the Lord your God with ALL your heart, ALL your soul, and ALL your mind. Seek Him with your WHOLE heart, as it says in Psalm 119, and He will help you not to wander from His commandments. Don’t give Him part of your heart, or only give Him your heart when you feel you have time to meditate on Him. Give Him your whole heart daily and you and your life will be completely transformed. Don’t overcomplicate it or make things harder than they need to be. We only get one life; don’t waste a moment not letting your relationship with Him reach its fullest potential.