Sunday, January 31, 2016

January 31, 2016

"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!




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