Completely

“You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength.”

Deuteronomy 6:5

As believers we shouldn't be amazed at how quickly our love for the Lord can lose its passion and grow cold. If it could happen to the early church it can happen to you and me too. To think that in the book of Revelation Jesus tells one particular church that has only been in existence for some 40 years or so before they had left their first love. Most everyone I know loves a great love song; one that captures the heart and has just the right words in it that says exactly what the heart feels.

I recall a time years ago where I was channel surfing on my television and I came to about 10 channels that were dedicated to music only. Who would have thought you would turn on the television to listen to music. One of the channels I discovered had soft easy listening music on it and I heard a song that was familiar to me, a song that I had enjoyed many years ago. It was a beautiful love song titled, “Completely”. As I sat there listening to it I thought about the words, and how they were simple, yet complex. A lot like love.

It made me think about the different levels of love, not the different kinds of love, but the depth of love. The bible says that in the last days, “the love of many will wax (grow) cold”. I began to examine the words to the song “completely” and to contemplate in my own heart and mind the word completely and what it really means. As I considered the word completely another word came to mind, the word “deep”, so I looked it up in the dictionary to compare the two. It said this,

Deep adj

extending from the surface downward or inward
extending a long way from top to bottom
extending a long way from front to back
extending a long way from a surface or boundary inward
standing or lining up in rows of a particular number
relatively far down, in, or inside something
coming from or reaching down inside the body

My favorite description for “deep” was number 10 on the list of descriptions which said, “deep” as an adjective, “intensely held, kept, or experienced.” That was good but it even got better, or deeper as I read the description for the word “deep” as a noun. It gave the following definition,

The middle or most intense part of something.


As I listened to that oldie but goodie love song playing I found myself longing to be a man who loves “completely” to love with all my heart and soul. Isn’t that exactly how the Lord wants you and me to love too. Honestly, that is how God created us to live. When the Lord God chose a people He would call “Israel” to be His own special people He taught them His ways, He instructed them in how they were to relate to Him as God. In essence He told them that they were to love Him “completely”. In the book of Deuteronomy chapter 30 beginning in verse 16 the Lord, through Moses, teaches the people to observe His ways to focus their lives on living and loving Him completely.

“…in that I command you today to love the LORD your God, to walk in His ways, and to keep His commandments, His statutes, and His judgments, that you may live and multiply; and the LORD your God will bless you in the land which you go to possess. But if your heart turns away so that you do not hear, and are drawn away, and worship other gods and serve them, I announce to you today that you shall surely perish; you shall not prolong your days in the land which you cross over the Jordan to go in and possess.”

Yes, loved one, God wants us to love Him completely. God isn’t into half hearted love because half  hearted love leaves us empty, never satisfied. God loves us completely and He calls us to love completely too. That’s why Jesus said in Mark 12:29-31, “The first of all the commandments is: ‘Hear, O Israel, the LORD our God, the LORD is one. And you shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength. This is the first commandment. And the second, like it, is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself. There is no other commandment greater than these.”

Today, loved one, determine to love completely, to love deep. Don’t hold back. Remember that love is a choice, not just a response. Love God and love others from the deepest place of your soul, from the source not the surface. Give your best and not your “left over”.

Know today, loved one, you never have to be alone again. God loves you, completely! Have a wonderful day realizing that His love for you is complete!


“For God is love”

1 John 4:8

I LOVE YOU!

Michael Osthimer

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