"He
answered, '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.'" Luke 10:27
There
is a lot of emphasis in fitness and conditioning on developing the “core.” And
there is good reason for emphasizing the core because every athletic movement
in every sport involves your core. It is your chest muscles and your arm muscles
and your abdominal muscle that must be toned in order to produce the strength
required to make the throw or swing the bat or put up the shot or go for the
pin or make the tackle.
I
know of no competitive athlete in any sport at any level who does not
understand the importance of strengthening his core! There is no way to improve
his performance strengthening his core.
Equally
as important as developing the physical core of his body is to master the core
fundamental of his sport as well as understanding the core strategies involved
in having a chance to win.
Many
times a coach has admonished a player to “put his soul into the game”! That
means he wants that player to combine all of his strength and skill and
knowledge of the game with his full concentration and effort.
That
is essentially the point of the Great Commandment which is quoted in the verse
above! You must love the Lord with your entire “core”!
“We love the Lord with
all our soul by living a life of faithfulness to all that the Lord has required
of us. While loving the Lord with all our heart has
to do with affection, loving the Lord with all our soul has to do with
devotion.
The
soul literally is the part of us that defines who we are. The essence of the biblical definition
for soul means life, personality, the inner self and our identity. It’s where
we make our decisions and choices that ultimately decide our lifestyle and behavior.
Think of the soul as the “core you”.
To love the Lord with all your soul means to love Him in
the way we live, in the choices we make and in the behavior and lifestyle we
adopt.” Greg Simas
Loving
God must be a full-time occupation. It should also be an on-going
preoccupation.
We
already established that a halfhearted love doesn’t please God. Nor does it
allow God to fully please you! So, just as you must commit your whole heart to
God you must also give your soul to loving Him!
God
won’t accept anything less from you than loving Him from your core! He wants to
be loved at and by the essence of your being. Only then can he fill you with
the essence of His being!
I
urge you to continue to strengthen your physical core! It will keep you strong
and health!
That
will require setting aside some time for a work out today!
But
above all, develop your spiritual core by committing to “love God with all your
soul”!
That
will require time alone with Him today, time to work it out spiritually!