UNO
My family and I were playing the card game UNO, which got me thinking about the Spanish word “Uno”, which means “one”. “Numero Uno” in Spanish is “number one” in English.
Matthew 22:36-40, says “Teacher, which is the most important commandment in the Law of Moses?” Jesus replied, “‘you must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. A second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ The entire law and all the demands of the prophets are based on these two commandments.”
So, our greatest commandment, the mandamiento numero uno is “make God #1”…..love the Lord your God with all of our heart, soul, and mind.
How do we do that?? How do we get to where we put God first (number 1) in our lives?
Philippians 3:10 begins, “I want to know Christ…”
Romans 10:17, says “So faith comes from what is heard, and what is heard comes through the message about Christ.”
We get to where we want to love Him by getting to know Him and we get to know Him by reading the Bible, we go to church, we listen to stories about Jesus, we listen to music about God, listen to podcasts to help us grow, we pray, we talk with our friends and our family members about what we’re learning, we go to church events, etc!
I can choose to have a distant relationship with God (by not trying to get to know Him better); or I can dive in head first seeking to know Him more and more everyday, just like Philippians 3:10 says. The more we get to know Him, the more we will love Him.
The chorus to the old song “Jesus loves me” goes like this...
Yes, Jesus loves me
Yes, Jesus loves me
Yes, Jesus loves me
The Bible tells me so.
The Bible tells us over and over that God loves us.
Romans 5:8 – But God demonstrates His love for us in that while we were sinners, Christ died for us.
Ephesians 2:4-5, “But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved.
and 1 John 4:7-10 says, “Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.
Do you KNOW that Jesus loves you? I hope so.
