The first
Yeshua said,
"You are to love THE LORD JEHOVAH
with all your heart
and from all your soul
and from all your power
and from all your mind."
Aramaic Bible
The second is like unto it
"Love thy neighbor as thyself."
MATTHEW 22: 34-40
Jesus was asked which is the great commandment in the law? He answered with the one and only laws of Love. To love God , the Creator, and all others as The Lord loves us. All are Gods son's and daughter's, creatures and plants of this garden called Earth.
HEART
First mentioned is the heart. We best understand that Love is an emotion, yet I have many emotions that contain love. Joy, kindness, gentleness, meekness, courage and trust and are all forms of Love and mentioned in the Bible. Fear is also mentioned in the phrase "God fearing'...Proverbs 9:10 exclaims; "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is insight." I am understanding from my own life, that all my emotions were given to me to experience. "With all my heart" means all emotions are to be expressed in order to fully give my love to God. So when I am in fear and the emotions of anger, anxiety, depression and frustration arise, this becomes my opportunity to go to God and ask for guidance, for Rest and for Peace. My Creator wants all of me.
SOUL
My soul..it is described usually that we HAVE One. I looked to hebrew for the origins of this word. It was enlightening to find the word for soul is "nefesh". meaning throat and wind, two definitions. Further commentaries reminded me that in Genesis 2:7, "God breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living soul." Therefor man/woman IS a SOUL. So through the "throat" and "wind" comes a living being. With this image I can see how the trees are my partners. The soul, my breath is one with them. Also as a child in the womb breathes through the mother until that first "gasp of life" brings her soulful being into this world. I have concluded to "love God with all my soul" means with every breath of every minute and each day to be ever so grateful for a new one.
POWER
Next I will point to Proverbs 18:10. "Do not grieve for the joy of the Lord is your strength." Hebrew for strength is koach. Meaning comes from an unused root, to be "firm". My first thought is to have the resolve to not bend away from my relationship with God. To trust in my journey and know God's will is far greater than my own.
MIND
Last is , "from all my mind " and I am not sure I can love God from all my mind on my own. My mental health has affected by a traumatic life as a child and further events as an adult. The result is a mind that has been broken. Therefor my ability to make decisions in my life has been challenging at the least. At my best I have been able to follow my own journey home with help through therapy, meditation, and ultimately knowing who I am. I am not only my mind. My long boughts of depression kept me in the past, full of anger, shame and guilt. Anxiety and panic attacks came from the worry and fears over the future and even if I had one. After my baptism on August 5, 2017, I have come to a place of forgiveness that has shown me how to release the past, have it be complete as it is. My future is promised to me as an inheritance. I will be guided home. Peace and Rest are available to me now. When I accept my mind with all its potential for fear, I give it fully to Him and all is well.
Love thy Neighbor
This commandment is like a mirror of the first or even as a coin has two sides. Both are about love in our relationships, with God and others. My first response to hearing these commandments was, "How can I love this much, I am not able to do this! I struggle everyday just to love myself". So my conclusion is to realize I am struggling to love at all, GOD or others. My prayers are about Gods grace. I have a clue as too how much God loves me and how I can love others, when I surrender to His grace. Only then my eyes are open and my heart knows. Love comes from Emanuel, "god with us". Every page of His Word has Love in every line.
"I am .. I am God...I am in relationship with you...I am love."
