Daily Devotional For Wednesday, August 6, 2025

Good morning Southside. Welcome to Wednesday. In 1989 a book was published by Robert Fulghum titled, All I Really Need To Know I Learned In Kindergarten: Uncommon Thoughts For Common Things. It was an immediate success. Fulghum’s thesis is that wisdom is not found in graduate schools educating Ph.D’s, but is actually found in kindergarten. Simple lessons of wisdom we hopefully all learned. Lessons such as, “Don’t hit people. Wash your hands before you eat. Put things back where you got them. Cold milk and cookies do a body good.”

They are pretty fundamental things, but they make a lot of sense. We need to implement the spiritual equivalent of those simple notions in adulthood: Love God. Love your neighbors. Jesus reminds us of this in Matthew 27:37-40, “And He said to him, ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ (38) This is the great and foremost commandment. (39) The second is like it, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself,’ (40) On these two commandments depend the whole Law and the Prophets’” (NASB). We call this The Greatest Commandment. Jesus said the whole Old Testament can be summarized in these two commandments: Love God and love people.

Jesus quotes from the Old Testament Law in Deuteronomy 6:5 and Leviticus 19:18. In the Deuteronomy passage Jesus quotes, the Hebrew word translated as “love” is [אָהֵב, ahev]. This word refers to a love that intentionally chooses to love someone with their whole mind, emotions, intellect and being. This is the same idea with its Greek New Testament equivalent – [ἀγαπάω, agapao]. This is not infatuation or a crush. This is not some kind of fickle love, but unconditional and lasting love. This is love that chooses to love no matter what their circumstances and thoughts say. This is why Jesus emphasizes loving God with all our heart,  soul and mind. This means nothing can be held back because God never holds back His unconditional love for us. 

This means for the believer there can be no compartmentalization of one’s love. You can’t love God with all your heart and soul, but not your mind. You can’t love God with all your soul and mind and not your heart or emotions. To make this clear, Jesus uses the word “soul” here, which is the Greek New Testament word [ψυχή, psuche]. This is where we get our English word psyche and psychology. This word refers to the willful, decision-making part of us. This refers to what gives us our distinctiveness other than our DNA – our personality. There will be times we do not feel emotionally love for God, but we intentionally choose to love Him anyway. 

Jesus uses the word “mind.” This is the Greek New Testament word [διάνοια, dainoia]. This includes more than our thoughts. This word includes beliefs and our faith in God. We live in a very critical world where the lost often look down on Christians as ones who do not think. Jesus encourages His believers to use their minds. This is more than just having Bible knowledge or knowledge about God. This word refers to using one’s mind to apply the truth of God to their lives. Our heart is the seat of our desires, wishes, wants and affections. 

If we put Jesus’ words into context, Jesus gives us this because He was asked, “Which is the greatest commandment?” (See Matthew 22:34-36). In the other Gospels, the Gospel writers add the words “strength with heart, soul, and mind” (See Mark 12:30 and Luke 10:27). What is Jesus’ point here? D. M. Doriani gives us some understanding in his commentary on this: 

• “We love God with heart and soul when we embrace Him in our deepest convictions and commitments.
• We love God with the mind when we understand our past and our present as He does and dedicate our future plans and goals to Him.
• We love God with our strength when we dedicate the physical body, its muscles and energy, to Him. We love God with our strength if we follow Him with a determined will and with moral resolve in the face of adversity” (Source: D.M. Doriani, Reformed Theology Commentary, “Matthew 1 & 2,” p. 315).

For any relationship to have any depth, it has to be built on two pillars — truth and trust. All great relationships require this. Trust is built over time as truth is experienced and reinforced in any relationship. This is why as you and I get into the truth of God’s Word, over time our trust in God grows and grows and grows. The number one reason people — even Christians — do not trust God is because they are not in God’s Word daily. These go hand-in-hand. If your only intake of God’s Word is Sunday morning, then your trust level in God will be less than someone who is in God’s Word daily.

Now I do not want this to give the wrong impression. Through my years I have known many people who read their daily devotion and were mean, ornery, judgmental, complaining, self-centered, egotistical,  — I think you get what I am saying. Getting into God’s Word every day is not something we do out of legalism — but out of love. Legalism simply makes you mean, judgmental and unloving. When you do the right thing for the wrong reason — whether it is out of guilt or pressure or obligation — love is replaced with loathe. You will have feelings of resentment, anger, frustration, disgruntlement, and you’ll be annoyed. Oh, you did what you were supposed to do— but the results are different. It all goes to motives. Why do you love the Lord and others? God commands us to love, but He won’t force us to love. You cannot force a feeling. Love chooses to love God and others even when it is difficult and dangerous:

Joey Bonifacio is a pastor and Christian author. He tells the heart-wrenching story that occurred in 2004. His son David was 20-years-old and came to the dinner table looking very gruff and scraggly. It was obvious he had not shaved in some time. When his dad asked him, “Are you trying to grow a beard?” David said, “Yes, I’ll need it when I go to Afghanistan.” Every eye turned towards Joey and his wife Marie. Fear was in their eyes. Their son wanted to go to a Christian relief mission there and help serve the people in that war-torn nation. Their son had been reading how the children in Afghanistan needed school teachers and the more he read, the more his heart pushed him to go. Joey said to his wife, “I’ll talk to him later tonight.” They were concerned for his life and health. Their son had just got back from a mission trip to Asia and while there, he nearly died from a tropical disease transmitted by mosquitos called “Dengue Shock Syndrome,” which is deadly and most people died from it. Their son spent two months in the hospital and missed an entire semester of college. Later that night Joey sat down with his son David and said to him, “You do realize that it is possible that you will not come home alive? You know it is possible that you could be killed?” His son asked, “Dad, where are you going with this? Wasn’t it you who taught me not to be afraid of death? Didn’t you teach all of us that in Jesus we have eternal life and that we have nothing to worry about?” Joey said he thought, “This is not what his mother and I want to hear.” His son continued, “Didn’t you tell me that if I should be killed and people hid my body, God would hear my blood speak, even if they buried me under the ground like Abel? And that inevitably justice will be served just like what happened with him?” I thought to myself, “Did I really say that?” Joey said he was stumped. “My son was right. My son had grown in his trust of God while I had to move mine to the next level.” Then his son asked, “Dad, did you lie to me through your sermons and our talks or is this the truth from God’s Word?” Joey said he stumbled to agree. His son then said, “Dad, you need to practice what you preach.” Their son did go to Kabul, Afghanistan and served for a year and came home in one piece” (Source: Joey Bonifacio, The LEGO Principle: The Power of Connecting To God and One Another, pp. 62-63).

Assignment: Who is it you find hard to love? Is it God because you blame Him for not stopping something that hurt you or someone you love? Is it a person who has said something or did something to you or someone you love? So, you are only going to love God as Jesus says above in Matthew 22:37-39 when it is convenient, comfortable and crisis free? If you are not loving God this way, how could you start with your heart (emotions), will (determination), your mind (thoughts) and your strength (physical abilities)? If you are having trouble with this, talk to a pastor or a godly biblical friend.

Scripture To Meditate On: Matthew 5:43-47, “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ (44) But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, (45) so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven; for He causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. (46) For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? (47) If you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? “(NASB). 

Prayer To Pray: “Heavenly Father, I want to keep Your fundamental truths at the center of my walk with You. I trust You and Your oversight of my life. Thank You for Your protection, provision, and plans for me. I intentionally choose to love You with all my heart, soul, mind and strength. I choose to love others as You do, even those who hurt me or people I love. I intentionally choose to love my enemies by praying for them and doing good to them. I choose Your way. In Jesus’ name, Amen.”

I love you Southside! – Pastor Kelly