LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART

This is a Bible verse that I hold very dear to my heart.

When I was younger, I didn't understand it the way I do today. As I've grown older and grown in my walk with God, this verse has come to mean so much more to me than simply a command to be obeyed.

It has become something I have experienced.

As God has guided my life to where it is today, I have naturally come to love Him with all my heart, soul, and strength.

I began to understand this so much better when I started seeing God as my Dad back in my 20s. Looking at Him through the eyes of a child looking up to a loving father completely opened up my world when it came to my faith walk with Him.

I had always known about God.

But I was beginning to know Him.

And there is a huge difference.

That understanding of His love really began to sink in during my time at Mercy Multiplied in Monroe, Louisiana. That experience helped me see what true love—the God kind of love—really means.

God's love for us is deeper than anything I have ever experienced in my life.

He loves us with everything He has.

He doesn't love us only when we get it right. He doesn't love us only when we're obedient. He doesn't stop loving us when we mess up, when we hurt, when we're angry, or when we don't understand what He is doing.

He simply loves us.

And when you have spent a good portion of your life not fully understanding what that kind of love looks like, experiencing it can change everything.

There was an older couple at Mercy Multiplied who were always there for us. They showed us the kind of love that a parent should show their children.

The husband always made a point to hug me every time he saw me.

That might sound like such a small thing to some people.

It wasn't small to me.

Those hugs opened my heart.

They gave me a glimpse of the kind of father-daughter love I had never really known. And through that experience, God began showing me something I desperately needed to understand:

I had a Father who loved me.

A Father who wasn't going to abandon me.

A Father who wasn't going to hurt me.

A Father who wasn't going to make me earn His love.

A Father who saw everything I had been through and loved me anyway.

And as I began to understand God's love for me, He began to deal with the anger I had carried in my heart for so many years because of the things I had experienced growing up.

He began to heal places in me that I didn't even realize still needed healing.

God brought me to Mercy Multiplied for such a time as that.

He knew exactly what He was doing.

He wasn't just bringing me there to get through a difficult season. He was bringing me there so I could begin to heal, become whole again, and ultimately become the woman He had created me to be.

He was preparing me for His plan for my life.

Looking back now, I can see His hand in so much of it.

I can see how He used people.

I can see how He used circumstances.

I can see how He used that season of my life to tear down walls I had built around my heart.

And most importantly, I can see how He taught me what love really is.

That is why Deuteronomy 6:5 means so much more to me now.

“Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.”

How can you love someone with all of your heart if you don't believe they truly love you?

How can you completely trust someone if you don't believe they have your best interest at heart?

How can you surrender everything to God if you are constantly afraid of what He might do with your life?

I believe that's why understanding God's love is so important.

When you truly understand how much God loves you, loving Him back becomes a natural response.

It isn't forced.

It isn't something you have to manufacture.

It isn't simply checking a box because the Bible tells you to.

It's the response of a heart that has finally realized, “My Father loves me.”

And once I understood that, everything changed.

I began to trust Him differently.

I began to surrender differently.

I began to pray differently.

I began to see my past differently.

And I began to see myself differently.

I wasn't the sum of everything that had happened to me.

I was His daughter.

And there is something powerful about knowing who you belong to.

Today, I can honestly say that I love the Lord with all my heart, soul, and strength.

Not because I've lived a perfect life.

Not because I've always gotten everything right.

And certainly not because I have all the answers.

I love Him because He first loved me.

He met me in broken places.

He stayed when I didn't understand.

He patiently worked on my heart.

He brought people into my life who showed me His love in ways I could actually receive.

And He took the pieces of my life that I thought were too broken and began putting them back together.

That's what God does.

He doesn't waste our pain.

He doesn't waste our past.

He doesn't waste the seasons we wish had never happened.

He can take all of it and use it for His purposes.

And maybe that's why this verse means so much to me now.

When I read, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength,” I don't hear a harsh command anymore.

I hear an invitation.

An invitation to love the One who has loved me all along.

An invitation to trust the Father who never stopped pursuing me.

An invitation to give Him every part of my heart because I know now that His hands are safe.

When you know how deeply you are loved by God, you don't have to be convinced to love Him back.

You just do.

And that is what Deuteronomy 6:5 has become for me.

Not simply a verse I memorized.

Not simply a command I obey.

But a reflection of a love that has changed my life.