Daily Devotionals

Voice of the Lord

Devotional: 4th of Adar

You are to love ADONAI your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength and with all your understanding (Luke 10:27).

The core of our confession of faith is love for God. At times our rabbis have emphasized obedience to the mitzvot (commandments) and have neglected the importance of a passionate love for the Holy One of Israel. But obedience should always be a response to love. Yeshua said, "This is the greatest and most important mitzvah [commandment]" (Matthew 22:38). But few of our people have experienced the purifying power of loving God with reckless abandon.

I was in my office in Skokie, Illinois one day when three Lubavitcher Chasidim (Ultra-orthodox Jews) walked through the front door. They had noticed the yellow sign in our front window that declared, "We have Mashiach (the Messiah) now!" One of them spoke for the others and said, "We have just been with the Messiah." (They meant their rebbe, head rabbi, Menachem Schneerson, who was still alive at the time.) "We've been with the Messiah," he continued, "and he told us what God wants. God wants more mezuzahs [boxes containing several Scriptures, attached to the doorframes of the house] and more tefillin [phylacteries; boxes containing several Scriptures, worn on the head and arm]." With that, they turned and walked out and I was left with my mouth hanging open. If only they knew what God really wants. It's not more mezuzahs. It's not more tefillin. It's more love. God wants us to love him with a reckless abandon. Only through Yeshua can we love the Lord in this way.

...commit myself to falling in love with God all over again and rekindle my passion and adoration for him with all my heart, soul, and strength.

DB