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. And the second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself (Mt. 22:37-40). These words, spoken by Jesus Christ as the first and second greatest commandments, are divine words of invitation to us. They are divine words that invite a response from us. They are an invitation to become lovers of God, lovers of our true selves, and lovers of others—to become passionately engaged in God’s vision and persistent revelation to our world.
In the final book of the Bible, Revelation, we hear the words spoken to the churches. They include words of affirmation, yet words of loving challenge to remain attentive, to stay alert and aware: Remember your first love—do not lose sight of nor turn away from the passion that infuses a first-love experience. Remain alert and faith-filled, remain attentive to the One who searches and knows the depths of your hearts and minds and reaches into the hidden most parts of your being to bring light and truth. Stay alert—be aware and attentive to your words and actions being congruent. Become who you claim to be. Turn again and again, day after day, moment by moment, into God. Live with fidelity of heart. Remain attentive, passionate, filled with God’s love and passion, faithful to His wooing.
Lukewarm spirituality gets spit out! Having one's heart gripped by God, or taken hold of by God, infuses one with a first-love experience. We journey forward in becoming people who take hold of that which has taken hold of us. God launches this interior strategy of the heart. We are invited to become partners with God as we allow God to work within us and to transform us.
Robert Slocum stated in Maximize your Ministry: How You as a Lay Person Can Impact Your World for Jesus Christ, "As God reveals His thoughts, feelings, discernment of good and evil, and will, people's hearts grow and are transformed. The goal of an interior strategy of the heart is to reshape the interior of our lives according to God's plans for the heart. When this happens, God can use his people to reshape the church and world" (p. 90).
Robert Slocum stated in Maximize your Ministry: How You as a Lay Person Can Impact Your World for Jesus Christ, "As God reveals His thoughts, feelings, discernment of good and evil, and will, people's hearts grow and are transformed. The goal of an interior strategy of the heart is to reshape the interior of our lives according to God's plans for the heart. When this happens, God can use his people to reshape the church and world" (p. 90).
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