How to Love God With All Your Heartنموونە

Loving God with all your heart

In our culture today, the heart is most often associated with our emotions. However, that was not the case in biblical times. In Jewish thought, emotions were more commonly associated with the soul, while the heart was seen as the part of a person’s being that made decisions.

As a result, loving God with all our heart means making the choice to love him, regardless of our circumstances or what that love might require of us. Unfortunately, that’s often easier said than done. And the twin stories of Pharaoh and Moses in Exodus illustrate that truth really well.

Few biblical characters are aligned more closely with a single characteristic as Pharaoh is with a hardened heart. But what does it mean to have a hardened heart? After all, Scripture speaks of it in different yet seemingly interchangeable ways.

For example, God warns Moses that Pharaoh will not listen to his entreaties to let the Hebrews go because “I will harden Pharaoh’s heart, and though I multiply my signs and wonders in the land of Egypt, Pharaoh will not listen to you” (Exodus 7:3–4).

However, in the next chapter, Scripture speaks of how Pharaoh “hardened his heart and would not listen to them” (Exodus 8:15). After the next plague, Scripture once again assigns responsibility to Pharaoh instead of God (v. 32). This back and forth continues throughout the narrative.

So which is it? Did God harden Pharaoh’s heart, or did that responsibility ultimately reside with the Egyptian ruler?

In truth, we don’t know, and the answer is likely a bit of both. It seems clear, however, that Pharaoh was already inclined to say no to God whenever he asked something of him. As a result, whether the state of Pharaoh’s heart was a consequence of God’s intervention or simply solidifying the king’s existing predilections, the end result was likely to be the same. And therein lies the most valuable lesson his example has to teach us.

Like Pharaoh, the more often we tell God no, the harder it will become to eventually say yes. Every time we choose to obey our will rather than the Lord’s, our hearts become a little more hardened against him.

That said, none of us can harden our hearts so much that we are beyond the reach of the Lord. We should never give up on ourselves or those around us, no matter how lost they may seem. However, every step away from God can feel as though it takes two to get back, and this need to allow the Spirit to soften what our sin has hardened is a big reason why.

In contrast to Pharaoh, we have the example of Moses. It’s worth noting that Moses was not afraid to disagree with God. There were many times—from his initial call in the desert to the plagues in Egypt and on through the Hebrews’ trek in the wilderness—where Moses argued against what the Lord was either planning to do or had told him to do. But what sets him apart is that, when God finally made it clear that his will would not change, Moses consented to do it.

In short, Moses made a habit of saying yes to God, even if that assent came after some arguments and debate.

When we think about what it means to love God with our hearts today, that is the pattern we should strive to follow. Our heavenly Father isn’t asking for a blind, unthinking obedience, though there will be times when we are asked to follow his will without a complete understanding of what that entails.

That decision to say yes —even—and especially—when it is difficult —is a key component of what it means to love God with all our heart. It means making the choice to use the freedom he has given us to surrender our will to his.

And just as saying no hardens our heart against the Lord, saying yes softens it, making it all that much easier to say yes in the future as well.

Ultimately, loving God with all our hearts is about more than just obedience, but obedience is where it needs to start. After all, love tends to come naturally when we can see how it is in our best interest. It’s the times when loving another is difficult that such love is most powerfully demonstrated.

So, as we finish for today, take some time to pray and ask the Lord to help you understand how ready you are to obey him. When you do obey, do you see such obedience more as the reluctant recognition that God is God or as an act of love? God is looking for the latter, which is one of the primary reasons he gave us the power to make that choice rather than forcing obedience upon us.