THE NUMBER ONE

This one is easy:

Jesus said:  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.

He went on to say:

And the second is like it:

Love your neighbor as yourself.

Then:

All  the Law and the Prophets

hang on these two commandments.

Adding in Luke 6.31:

Do to others

as you would have them do to you.

This is the heart of God's loving desire for us, isn't it?

Love Him.  As He loves us.  Know Him.  To know Him is to love Him, isn't it?   We can read--search--the Scriptures and find knowledge and understanding of our Father's love.  The Holy Spirit will reveal the Father in and through the Son, our Lord and Savior Jesus.  2 Corinthians 3.18 and 4.6 tell us that we are transformed when we see the glory of God in the face of Jesus.

We can see this glory as  we read the Old Testament and realize that what is said of God (Ex. 34.6-7; Ps. 103) is to be seen in the Gospels in the Lord Jesus.  Also, what we see in the Gospels about Jesus is true of the Father.  Jesus said that what He did and said was exactly what He saw the Father do and say.

When we read Scripture with prayer to see the glory of the Father in the Son, the Holy Spirit will open our eyes to see wonderful things.  Then when we "walk" with the Holy Spirit in meditation on what He has shown us, He writes these things into our heart and we are lifted into the heart of God.  In this way, God enters our hearts with eternal life-giving, life-changing power.

When God's love begins to fill our hearts (Romans 5.5), we will return that love with our heart, mind, soul, and stength.  When love for God fills our hearts and flows up toward God, it will also flow outwardly to our "neighbors"--our families, friends, church, and the acquaintances and strangers that the Lord passes by us.