The Greatest Commandment

“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.” (Matthew 22:37) With these words, Jesus summed up the first four commandments, teaching us how to approach our relationship with God. We often lose sight of this when we’re in the midst of difficulty and trial, but these are the times when we need these words the most.

One of those times of difficulty and trial is when our children are sick. When they are young, kids can’t articulate exactly what’s bothering them. Other than the obvious outward signs of sickness, the only way we know something is not right with them is when they tell us “My tummy hurts,” or “I don’t feel good.” Combine this lack of specifics with a parent’s natural instinct to care for their child and one has the recipe for faltering trust in the promises of God. That faltering trust can lead us to a form of idolatry centered on our kids. When things get to this point, sometimes our best effort to keep the greatest commandment is to say something like, “Okay, God, I love You; now please make my child well.”

We know this is not how it works. We cannot achieve blessing through our own efforts to keep God’s law; because of our depravity, our efforts are doomed to fail. But we can look to Christ. Because the wrath of the Father that we deserved to suffer for our sins was poured out on Him, we can trust that God will deal with us gracefully. Even in times of sickness, because His justice has been satisfied, we can trust in God’s good purposes for us. Because Christ loved the Father perfectly and died in our place, we can love the Lord with all our hearts, our souls and our minds through Him.