My Soul Longs for Thee O God

Deuteronomy 6:5

And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might.

Loving God with all my heart is just the starting point. He asks us to love Him with all of our souls as well. Some people excuse their actions because they claim that 'God sees their heart.' That would be fine if our heart was the only thing that God wanted from us. He asks us not only for our heart, but ALL of our soul, to love Him completely. What is our soul?

The soul is the part of us that makes our decisions in life. Our love cannot just be inward toward God in our heart. Our love for God has to be outward too. A love that is expressed by the decisions of our will. God commands us to love Him with all of our soul. God wants us to show our love for Him when we make decisions in life! He wants us to love Him with all of our soul.

We 'make up our mind' to make a decision, but it is really our soul that decides what we will do in this life. When we are controlled by our heart, we do whatever we feel like doing. If we are controlled by our mind, we do what we think is the logical course of action. Often when people make a decision they try to balance their heart (their wants) with their mind (logical thinking), and then do what WE THINK is best. It is our soul that weighs these decisions and makes them.

Proverbs 3:5

Trust in the Lord with all your heart; and lean not unto your own understanding.

God wants us to yield our will to His Word, and to lean not on our own wants or understanding. When we do this, we have loved God with all of our soul. Sometimes we let God guide us when it is convenient, but we guide ourselves when we'd rather do things for our own way. No matter what, our souls must choose to do things God's way. He asks us to love Him with ALL of our soul, not just a part of it.

Psalms 119:105

Your word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.

When we choose to follow God, and make our decisions in life according to the Bible, we have chosen to love God with all of our soul.