Saturday/Sunday—July 1–2•Loving God with Intensity As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When can I go and meet with God? (Psalm 42:1–2) Jesus said the greatest commandment is to love God “with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind” (Matthew 22:37, emphases added). We see this intensity in David’s “thirst for the living God.” When Jeremiah suffered for delivering a message of judgment, he cried out to the Lord, saying, “But if I say, ‘I will not mention Him the Lord or speak any more in his name,’ his word is in my heart like a fire, a fire shut up in my bones. I am weary of holding it in; indeed, I cannot.” (Jeremiah 20:9). Or consider Job. He lost his children in a terrorist attack. His business empire was stripped from him. His body was stricken by disease. And his wife said, “Why don’t you just curse God and die?” (See Job 2:9.) But Job said, “Though he slay me, yet I will hope in him” (Job 13:15). What do you get when you yearn to love God with all your heart, soul and mind? You get Jeremiah-like boldness, Job-like devotion. This is what every man is looking for. On a scale of 0–10, with 0 indicating indifference and 10 indicating consuming passion, how intensely do you love God? Are you satisfied with your score? Why or why not? Daily Reading: 2 Kings 18:13–22:2, Acts 21:1–36, Psalm 149:1–150:6, Proverbs 18:8–10 From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work. Ephesians 4:16, nlt 15
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