Love the Lord With All Your Soul
Love the Lord your God...
With All Your Soul...
Luke 10:27
" ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind'; and, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.''"
Do you know the story of Paul Potts?
There are some songs, everytime I hear them, they envoke something inside of me, down deep, the reach past my eardrums and touch my soul. Then are some songs that when you hear them, it is like you are sharing an incredibly special moment with the artist, they have sent their soul out on the notes for you to experience.
Some today would argue there really is no soul, they are misguided. It is true that perhaps it is hard to understand what the soul is, but that doesn't make it less a part of our being.
In days gone by, it seems people had a clearer understanding of what the soul is.
A room without books is like a body without a soul.
Cicero (106 BC - 43 BC)
He enjoys true leisure who has time to improve his soul's estate.
Henry David Thoreau (1817 - 1862), Journal, February 11, 1840
Philosophers, Theologians and
even scientists have studied, poked and prodded at the soul.
Artists, musicians and actors have captured glimpses of the soul
Every artist dips his brush in his own soul, and paints his own nature into his pictures.
Henry Ward Beecher (1813 - 1887), Proverbs from Plymouth Pulpit, 1887
You soul creates & endeavors to protect what has been created
Wikipedia:
The soul, according to many religious
and philosophical traditions, is the self-aware essence unique to
a particular living being. In these traditions the soul is thought
to incorporate the inner essence of each living being, and to be the
true basis for sapience. It is believed in many cultures and religions
that the soul is the unification of one's sense of identity. Souls are
usually considered to be immortal and to exist prior to incarnation.
The concept of the soul has strong links with notions of an afterlife, but opinions may vary wildly, even within a given religion, as to what may happen to the soul after the death of the body. Some religions don't even believe in the soul . Many within these religions and philosophies see the soul as immaterial, while others consider it to possibly have a material component, and some have even tried to establish the weight of the soul.
In his book "Renovation of the Heart", Dallas Willard describes the soul as "the dimension of a person that interrelates all the other dimensions so that they form one life."
He goes on the describe that
the soul "encompasses and ‘organizes' the whole person... we naturally
treat persons as souls, but the soul is not the person, it is rather
the deepest part of the self in terms of overall operations."
The soul is that part of the life that animates a body, brings the body to life. The Soul is not the life itself for that is the spirit, but the soul is the purpose for a body to move, encompassing will, reason, mind, emotions - bringing all that together.
The soul and the spirit are separate entities of the person as it says in Hebrews:
Heb. 4:12
For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged
sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit
Separating the psuche from the pneuma - the breath of life
Gk:psuche; breath, the soul:
psyche, psychology
Hb:nephesh [659b]; from an unused
word; a soul, living being, life,
self, person, desire, passion, appetite, emotion
Psa. 63:1 O God, you are my God,
earnestly I seek you;
my soul thirsts for you,
my body longs for you,
in a dry and weary land
where there is no water.
Job 7:11 "Therefore I will not keep silent;
I will speak out in the anguish of my spirit,
I will complain in the bitterness of my soul.
Even Jesus:
Matt. 26:38 Then he said to them, "My
soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death. Stay here
and keep watch with me."
Soul - the ‘seat' of ambition
Drives purpose
Future / Past
To know what you prefer instead of humbly saying Amen to what the world tells you you ought to prefer, is to have kept your soul alive.
Robert Louis Stevenson (1850 - 1894)
Our soul is what makes us uniquely human - distinct from the rest of creation:
It is only to the individual that a soul is given.
Albert Einstein (1879 - 1955)
Ezek. 18:4 For every living soul belongs to me, the father as well as the son-both
alike belong to me. The soul who sins is the one who will die.
Soul & Heart (or spirit) are closely
tied together like two brothers, but separate, distinct and significant
Your spirit controls your soul.
Like your brain that is part of your body and yet the brain controls the body
Your spirit is part of your soul and the spirit controls the soul
So Mary says:
Luke 1:46 "My soul glorifies the Lord
Deut. 4:29 But if from there you seek the LORD your God, you will find him if you look for him with all your heart and with all your soul.
How do we love the Lord - with all of my soul?
Where you love God - you will experience His love coming back to you
When you love him in your soul, your soul will experience his love
His love brings peace, joy, kindness hope, faithfulness
Find delight in the Lord
Is. 61:10 I delight greatly in the LORD;
my soul rejoices in my God.
For he has clothed me with garments of salvation
and arrayed me in a robe of righteousness,
as a bridegroom adorns his head like a priest,
and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.
Psa. 35:9 Then my soul will rejoice in the LORD
and delight in his salvation.
Seek Him with intensity
Psa. 42:1 As the deer pants for streams of water,
so my soul pants for you, O God.
2 My soul thirsts for God, for the living God.
When can I go and meet with God?
3 My tears have been my food
day and night,
while men say to me all day long,
"Where is your God?"
Gage my relationship with God by the rest I find in him
The LORD is my shepherd, I shall not be in want.
2 He makes me lie down in green pastures,
he leads me beside quiet waters,
- he restores my soul.
Psa. 62:5 Find rest, O my soul, in God alone;
my hope comes from him.
Is your soul at rest - or is it anxious, disturbed
Is peace a hallmark of your life
If my hope comes from him -
am I satisfied with where God has you and allow him to move you?
1Sam. 1:10 In bitterness of soul Hannah wept much and prayed to the LORD.
Prov. 16:24 Pleasant words are a honeycomb,
sweet to the soul and healing to the bones.
Mark 8:36 What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, yet forfeit his soul? 37 Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul?
1Pet. 2:11 Dear friends, I urge you, as aliens and strangers in the world, to abstain from sinful desires, which war against your soul.
3John 2 Dear friend, I pray that you may enjoy good health and that all may go well with you, even as your soul is getting along well.