Part 3: The 4-Degrees of Loving God – Loving God With All Your Mind

Welcome to this week’s Coffee on The Couch! I’m glad that you have joined me for coffee and conversation.

Over the past 2-weeks, we have delved into Mark 12:30. I have called this series: The 4-Degrees of Loving God. Through these teachings, John Mark has inspired us to love the Lord our God with all our heart, with all our soul, and our theme for this week –– with all our mind.

I like The Passion Translation that reads, “You are to love the Lord Yahweh, your God, with every passion of your heart, with all the energy of your being, and with every thought that is within you….” So, Brother Mark, do you really mean that we are to love God with every thought that is within us?

According to a Google search, experts believe that the human mind thinks an average of 60,000 – 80,000 thoughts per day. If we average that out, that is a number of 2,500 – 3,500 per hour. So, is this passage of scripture saying that those 80,000 thoughts should solely be about God? That, I’m not quite sure of, but what I do feel is that our actions, intents, and opinions should be from a place of love. If we love God and truthfully want to please Him, the manifestation of that love will show forth in the fruit that we bear every day. Jesus told the Disciples, if you love me, keep my commandments. The things, which you have learned and received and heard and saw in me, do these things. Dr. Tony Evans said it this way: “We are to love God with the totality of our being. It’s one thing to claim that you love God. It’s another thing to demonstrate it through everything you think, say, and do.”

Before we contemplate, reflect, or consider a thought, love should be the foundation of that brainwave. Think of it this way, as blood travels from the heart throughout the body, when it reaches the brain, it should deliver the electrical impulses needed to stimulate loving thoughts. If we love God with all our heart, week one’s discussion, then that flow takes place without contamination – free of impurities, poison, and pollution.

When we think about the pulse of America today, I think you would agree with me that over the years, we have fallen short in the area of love. It is that shortcoming that has brought us to where we are today. A nation confronted with the multi-systemic effects of racism.

In the truths held to be self-evident, did this country’s actions reflect the teachings taught and the examples shown to us by Jesus? Did “we the people” become “me or us” with no consideration for others outside of our ethnic group? Loving God with all our heart, and mind would have changed the trajectory of this nation. But instead, we are plagued with the circumstances of premeditated murder, of the human spirit.

Can the contract now be honored? Can the heart, soul, and mind of America be transformed? If God’s word is truth and every man a liar, yes, it can. How? By the renewing of our minds one generation at a time.

So, my challenges for you today are:

• Abandon every display of selfishness
• Possess a greater concern for what matters to others instead of your own interests
• Consider the example that Jesus, the Anointed One, has set before us
• And finally, let His mindset become your motivation

If we abide by these principles and apply them to our lives, loving God with all our mind will reflect the good, acceptable, and perfect will of the Father.

Join me again next week for Coffee on The Couch.