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Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’”

Matthew 22:37-39 (NIV)

How do we love God with our mind? This isn’t about intellectual assent to beliefs about God but rather using our mind to love God. Maybe that seems odd. We often say we love with our heart and think with our mind. Yet our minds encounter and process both thoughts and feelings. Our minds give shape to what we say and how we act.

We know how to put our minds to use in service of school or work. May we discover anew how to engage our minds in service of loving God.

Listen

Let the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart be pleasing to you, Lord, my rock and my redeemer.

Psalm 19:14

Think

This prayer is most often heard from the mouths of preachers just before they begin a sermon. But what if this was the prayer we each said when we first got up in the morning? What if this was the prayer we said before we walked out the door each day? The prayer we prayed before each encounter with another person?

“Woke up this mornin’ with my mind, stayed on Jesus,” says the African American spiritual. With our minds stayed on Jesus, the words we say are more likely to come from a place of love and grace. We are more likely to focus our thoughts on what is true and holy and just.

Making our words and thoughts pleasing to God is not something we must muster up on our own strength. We come to God in prayer, and in our very prayer, God is at work stirring up the desire in us to please God.  As this prayer fills our minds, words fill our mouths, and our hearts spill over with God’s love and grace.

Amen.

Ann Deibert

Pray

Let the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart be pleasing to you, Lord, my rock and my redeemer. Amen.

Go

God loves your mind. God loves you.

Invite God to renew and transform your mind to love God and your neighbor.

Then go in peace and share that great love.

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