With All Your Might

This morning we celebrate the first Sunday in our new church building! We are overwhelmed by God's goodness and this wonderful evidence of his grace in the life of our church. Today we conclude our study through the words of the Shema in Deuteronomy 6:4-5 as we consider the phrase, "with all your might."

The word translated as might is the Hebrew word "me'od." The most common translation of this word is "very." It's used as an adjective to describe muchness, or translated as exceedingly or greatly. As Tim Mackie says, "If "me'ed" can intensity any words meaning to totally capacity, then this final thing that you use to love God, isn't a thing at all. It's actually everything. Loving God with your "me'ed" means devoting every possibility, opportunity, and capacity that you have to honoring God and loving your neighbor as yourself. It's the most wide and expansive word in the Shema. "Me'od" can refer to almost anything." Apart from the gracious intervention of God, we don't have the strength or might to love God. We need Jesus and we need Him to be our strength. In the teaching and life of Jesus we learn that true strength is found when we embrace our weakness, acknowledge our need, and depend upon his grace and mercy. May God give us grace to work from his strength and to love wit his might as we are more deeply gripped by the grace of God shown towards us in Christ.