‘You shall love the LORD your God with all your … mind.’ Mark 12:30 NKJV
God has created us with the capacity to keep learning until the day we die, which is something we shouldn’t take for granted. The average brain weighs approximately three pounds, yet neurologists approximate that we have the ability to learn something new every second of every minute of every hour of every day until the day we die. Awesome, right? But it’s more than that. It’s an awesome obligation. Learning isn’t an indulgence; it’s a stewardship matter. Jesus said, ‘You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.’ (Mark 12:30 NKJV) It’s impossible to determine the percentage of our minds we use, but all of us have untapped potential. Your imagination is capable of considerably more than you can dream. Yet somewhere along the way, most of us stop living out of imagination and start living out of memory. We stop designing the future and start copying the past. And that is the day we cease living and begin dying. Why? Because we stop educating ourselves. Loving God with all your mind requires maximising your mind by learning as much as possible about as much as possible. Reconcile yourself with the reality that God is not an object of comprehension as much as He is a source of wonder. And that sacred sense of wonder ignites a holy curiosity to keep learning more about the Creator and His creation.
SoulFood: 1 Thes 4-5 Matt 2:1-12 Ps 90:1-6 Pro 1:1-4
Never stop learning (2)
‘A wise person will hear and increase in learning …’ Proverbs 1:5 NASB20
Loving God with all your mind means managing your mind and making the most of it. It means loving God logically and creatively, intuitively, and thoughtfully. Albert Einstein, one of history’s greatest minds, said: ‘The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existence. One cannot help but be in awe when he contemplates the mysteries of eternity, of life, of the marvellous structure of reality. It is enough if one tries merely to comprehend a little of this mystery every day. Never lose a holy curiosity.’ Downplaying his genius, Einstein said, ‘I have no special gift, I am only passionately curious.’ The Bible says, ‘The earth is the LORD’s, and all its fullness, the world and those who dwell therein’ (Psalm 24:1 NKJV). So, your curiosity should be boundless and without limits. The Latin word for ‘education’ means ‘to draw out’ rather than ‘to cram in’. Most academic programmes focus on force-feeding knowledge rather than releasing curiosity. The result? We know some things – but we lose what’s most vital: the love of learning. In one study of a top university, the highest scoring graduates were given their same final exams one month after graduation. All of them failed. When you attempt to cram the truth into your mind, it seldom gets past the short-term memory. And it assuredly doesn’t get into the soul. Sadly, sometimes that’s what happens in church each weekend. What’s the answer? Put God’s Word into practice every chance you get.
SoulFood: 2 Thes 1-3 Matt 2:13-18 Ps 90:7-17 Pro 1:5-9
The Word for Today is authored by Bob and Debby Gass and published under licence from UCB International Copyright 2024
