With all your heart?

[Hammster]

Can we, in our fallen-but-redeemed state here on Earth, love God with all of our heart? Or does our flesh prevent us from doing so?

 

[grasping the after wind]

Can we, in our fallen-but-redeemed state here on Earth, love God with all of our heart? Or does our flesh prevent us from doing so?

I don't think either of the Two Great commandments are humanly possible to achieve . We can only do the best we can to love God and our neighbor as intensely but imperfectly as our nature allows us to.

 

[Halbhh]

Matthew 19:26 Jesus looked at them and said, "With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible."

Not without His help, we'd expect.

But, with His help "all things are possible."

Here's such a wonderful illustration --

26 In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans. 27 And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for God’s people in accordance with the will of God.

Romans 8 NIV

-----
If you'd asked a very different question like: have we always perfectly loved God with all of our heart (never stumbled even once), then the answer would be instantly just: "no." -- we've all failed, all 'fallen short'. But you asked something that can be taken very different, something more like: Are miracles possible (ever)? To that kind of question, the answer is: "yes".

 

[All Glory To God]

I say no. I think we are justified by our nature, not performance. Sanctification is an ongoing process and will not be completed this side of heaven. The lost will never love God, so they don't even try to fulfill the law. Gods friends desire to please and love him, as he loved us first.

 

[com7fy8]

"rather let it be the hidden person of the heart, with the incorruptible beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is very precious in the sight of God." (1 Peter 3:4)

From this, I see how God is pleased with the beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit. I understand this means how God's love in us changes our character so we become gentle and quiet. So, this is not merely how we show outwardly. And Jesus is "gentle and lowly in heart" > Matthew 11:29 > so I see being gentle and quiet means to be gentle and humble like Jesus who is so pleasing to our Father. And this is loving God, by being pleasing like His Son in us sharing this with us in our hearts.

So, yes, if we are growing in Jesus, it is happening and not only possible.

Now, I might be theologically correct about this, but I need to get real and right the way I see the Bible says God will do with us. So, I pray > in my case, this means I just be still and expect God to do what He really wants to do in me. And growing with His correction takes time, in my case, I am finding. Plus, I do not become some super-Christian by myself, but our Father has us helping each other as family.

One part of the body grows in connection with our other members.

So, I would consider > read what our New Testament says about how we become and relate in Christ, and expect and trust God to do this in us. Because this is what God does; there are no magic formula copy-cat methods >

"for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure." (Philippians 2:13-16)

"Therefore submit to God." (in James 4:7)

"And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to which also you were called in one body; and be thankful." (Colossians 3:15)

 

[Halbhh]

Another aspect to help people on whether you should try to love God with all of your heart --

Loving God with all of your heart doesn't mean you are loving as if someone else, such as someone who is already in heaven, or even that you love the same way another person somewhere here does.

Instead of those, it means you love God with all of your heart, here/now, as best you can.

And then, with grace and faith, and trying as much as you can with all of your mind, and all of your strength, and all of your soul, and all of your heart -- all that you can...then you might also get help...the kind of help that can do things we could not do on just our own without Him.

 

[com7fy8]

I think you are saying it does not come with self effort.

Yet I have been trying to produce my own correction and submission to God.

Only God can truly correct us, and this is guaranteed by Hebrews 12:4-14.

 

[OldWiseGuy]

With the help of the Holy Spirit we are slowly being converted, sometimes without being aware of it.

 

[Tree of Life]

Can we, in our fallen-but-redeemed state here on Earth, love God with all of our heart? Or does our flesh prevent us from doing so?

No we cannot.

 

[Halbhh]

I think you are saying it does not come with self effort.

Yet I have been trying to produce my own correction and submission to God.

Only God can truly correct us, and this is guaranteed by Hebrews 12:4-14.

Mmmm...we are given instructions, and those do mean we have choices, and making choices is then apparently required of us. When we are told to "walk in the spirit", even that is a choice, in that we inside ourselves can choose each day at moments whether to go with the way of the flesh (such as anger, or greed or such), or instead to look to Christ and walk in the spirit. So....to me, in the way that I use words (which isn't the way that all others use the same words! most use some words in unique ways), I don't think of my choices as fully independent nor as fully controlled, not either one. It's more like cooperation I suppose, or a mutual effort, akin to how a toddler takes the hand of a Parent in order to walk.

The young toddler cannot walk too well without the Parent!, yet...they also don't (or should not) drag their feet and refuse to follow when the parent has their hand. So the toddler cooperates, and moves their own legs, and because of the Parent, there is a walk that the toddler could never do.

 

[Kenny'sID]

It's a work in progress, and we can improve markedly, and only in the sense that humans are capable of, can we love him with all our hearts.

And I think that is all the term means, l mean God is not going to expect something from us that we can't possibly do.

 

[Gregory Thompson]

Can we, in our fallen-but-redeemed state here on Earth, love God with all of our heart? Or does our flesh prevent us from doing so?

It's not really about the organ beating in your chest. See below.

 

[1213]

Can we, in our fallen-but-redeemed state here on Earth, love God with all of our heart? Or does our flesh prevent us from doing so?

Why and how it would be impossible? I think it is possible to love God of all your heart.

 

[Hammster]

So, yes, if we are growing in Jesus, it is happening and not only possible.

Let me ask you this. Are you perfectly obedient?

 

[Hammster]

It's a work in progress, and we can improve markedly, and only in the sense that humans are capable of, can we love him with all our hearts.

And I think that is all the term means, l mean God is not going to expect something from us that we can't possibly do.

So it’s a sliding scale?

 

[Hammster]

It's not really about the organ beating in your chest. See below.

View attachment 290676

Um...okay.

 

[Hammster]

Why and how it would be impossible? I think it is possible to love God of all your heart.

Are you perfectly obedient?

 

[Gregory Thompson]

Um...okay.

This contributed to me voting yes in the poll.

 

[Hammster]

This contributed to me voting yes in the poll.

Um...okay.

 

[Kenny'sID]

So it’s a sliding scale?

It's just a matter of being obediant, and I personally will let God decide where and how the chips fall. God seems to work on his own scale, and the following should give you a pretty good idea of how it may work.

“For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire workers for his vineyard. He agreed to pay them a denarius for the day and sent them into his vineyard.

“About nine in the morning he went out and saw others standing in the marketplace doing nothing. He told them, ‘You also go and work in my vineyard, and I will pay you whatever is right.’ So they went. “He went out again about noon and about three in the afternoon and did the same thing. About five in the afternoon he went out and found still others standing around. He asked them, ‘Why have you been standing here all day long doing nothing?’ “‘Because no one has hired us,’ they answered. “He said to them, ‘You also go and work in my vineyard.’ “When evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his foreman, ‘Call the workers and pay them their wages, beginning with the last ones hired and going on to the first.’ “The workers who were hired about five in the afternoon came and each received a denarius. So when those came who were hired first, they expected to receive more. But each one of them also received a denarius. When they received it, they began to grumble against the landowner. ‘These who were hired last worked only one hour,’ they said, ‘and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the work and the heat of the day.’ “But he answered one of them, ‘I am not being unfair to you, friend. Didn’t you agree to work for a denarius? Take your pay and go. I want to give the one who was hired last the same as I gave you. Don’t I have the right to do what I want with my own money? Or are you envious because I am generous?’

“So the last will be first, and the first will be last.”...

— Matthew 20:1–16, New International Version