… and the command given by our Lord and Savior through your apostles.
Summary: What happens when we get “bumped?” What sloshes out of our heart onto those around us? Today’s meditation looks at the importance of keeping our heart, soul, and mind focused on Jesus.
Did I say I was going to wrap things up on this verse yesterday? I did, didn’t I? Hmmm… What does the Bible say? It says I should not have jumped the gun:
“Instead, you ought to say, ‘If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that.’” (James 4: 15)
So, it would have been better if I had said, “If it is the Lord’s will, I will wrap this up.” Apparently, it wasn’t yet time to “wrap up.” I still have one more thing to say.
Yesterday evening I was thinking about where this rabbit trail has taken us. All it took to start us down this path was Peter saying, “the command given by our Lord and Savior…” That led to a series of questions, the first of them being, “Which command?” If we look at Jesus’ command that we should love each other (John 15: 17) as a catch-all, then every other command can be thought of as a facet of this command.
In the comments for Part III, “The Jesus Filter,” Chris shared with us an analogy of a bucket. He wrote, “I heard it said once that your heart is a bucket, and it is filled to the brim. We think we are ok with what’s in our buckets until someone ‘bumps us,’ and then we see what spills out.”
This idea of life’s “bumps” revealing what is in our hearts intrigues me. We are supposed to love each other as Jesus loved us (John 15: 12). But what if we do not feel loved? That made me wonder what it is, exactly, that I put in my bucket. How do we fulfill Jesus’ command to love each other if our hearts are full of other stuff?
Lately, the world seems to be falling apart. Conflict is everywhere. Watching the news or reading about what is going on means consuming other people’s emotions. Fear, frustration, and anger are constant companions.
How does all of this conflict affect my bucket? Am I allowing Jesus to fill it with his love, or am I adding things to it that should not be there? In “Stirred Up” (2 Peter 3: 1b) we looked at our minds as a snow globe that Peter hopes to “stir up” (KJV) thoughts that are “wholesome” (NIV). We have come full circle. To love as Jesus loves us, we must remember that Jesus loves us. If we remember that Jesus loves us, we will want to share that love with others.
When we are “bumped,” what is in our heart sloshes out. Sometimes that can surprise us. The bump reveals our need to keep our heart and mind on Jesus. When asked by the Pharisees what the most important command is, Jesus confirms this when he says, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.” (Matthew 22: 37).
Heart, soul, and mind. All three aspects of our being need to be fully committed to our God. That does not leave a lot of room for anything else, does it? And yet, here on earth, we have bills to pay, obligations to meet, things to sort out. Stuff seeps into our hearts that we do not want to have there.
Once again I find myself drawn to Peter’s words in the first part of his letter:
“…make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; and to godliness, mutual affection; and to mutual affection, love.” (2 Peter 1: 5-7)
This world we live in is a battlefield. It was that way in Jesus’ day, and it has not changed much since then. Satan still works to deceive and to lead us astray. We are not Christians because we are perfect. We are made perfect because of Christ’s love (Hebrews 10:14). Until he comes for us again, we struggle. Meanwhile, we do well to remember that what we put in the bucket matters.
Application: Be conscious of what goes in the bucket of your heart, mind, and soul.
Food for Thought: If you have a list of things that you want to put in your bucket, it could be called a “bucket list.” What is on your bucket list and how do you get them in your bucket?
Gods words cant be contained by my bucket. I need everyone’s buckets to share it with.
Interesting conclusion, V.
Sometimes you have to realize that it’s not about the things you can fit in your bucket so you give it to someone who needs it. And if it’s in His will. You might be blessed with a VAT that holds more.
Hmmm…
Team commenting. Very clever! 🙂
Thank you, V, A & T.
I’m going to try breaking this down.
Heart, soul, mind, and in Mark 12 it also says strength.
The heart is used to describe a lot of things in scripture. A source for our feelings, words, and actions. If we are to love God with our heart, would that look like making Him the root of our feelings, or submitting our feelings to Him? A repeated description of the new covenant is the idea of God’s law being written on our hearts.
The soul is understood to be your being, who a person is. My very existence should love God. Do I know what that looks like?
Okay, what about mind? The center of our thoughts, logic, reasoning. To love God with my mind, would be to use it to understand His word, to plan things that are good according to Him, and to trust that my reasoning should be in alignment with His otherwise it’s wrong. Meditate on His word.
Strength, our abilities and actions. Do I live the way I think? If I love and honor God with my mind but leave my actions for myself, then what good did I do? God describes love in action as a “man laying down his life for his brother”. So our actions should include sacrifice. However it shouldn’t be for the sake of sacrifice! Here is where I understand heart and soul should be in agreement and desire to give up for the sake of another’s good or the glory of God. To love God with all your strength requires one to have loved God with the other three first.
So to fill my bucket to follow the commandment of love God and love your neighbor….. To let the source of what you say and do be written on by God. Come into covenant, receive the forgiveness, and then it’s possible to do what is good, because what is good will be written on the source of your words and actions. Don’t stop praying to be filled by Him, because to the one who asks it will be given. Read and meditate on scripture. And follow through, don’t hold it in, let some of this splash out of the bucket by your actions.
A –
Thank you for your detailed comment today. I especially like your conclusion: “Don’t hold it in, let some of this splash out of the bucket by your actions.”
If we spend all of our energy trying to keep from spilling, we are missing a lot of living. Important living and giving.
Not only that, but in splashing things out, we allow things to be splashed out that need to be out.
All very important!
What is on your bucket list and how do you get them in your bucket?
I like this question; it really made me think. I think about how many times in my life I have tried to “change what comes out of my bucket,” but in the end I was only changing my behavior and not what was in the bucket. The only true change to what’s in my bucket has come from the Lord, and that is a slow process because He doesn’t just empty the bucket and fill it up again, He made me aware of what was there, and then fostered my desire to change, and then reinforced it in Scripture. I would have to say that what I want in my bucket are the Fruits of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22-23 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.), and I find that the only way to get them in there is to recognize that they are not there (or as the Lord intends) and ask the Lord to give you the desires of your heart. I think that is an important piece, recognizing that there are things in the bucket that you don’t want, and instead of trying to change your behavior, asking the Lord to fill your heart with His Word. Read His Word, think about it, pray about it, let God change what’s in your bucket.
Thank you, Chris.
And THANKS for the bucket analogy! That has been helpful. 🙂
12-08-2021, 2 Peter 3:2b, If you have a list of things that you want to put in your bucket, it could be called a “bucket list.” What is on your bucket list and how do you get them in your bucket?
But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.
1 Corinthians 2:14
And He, when He comes, will convict the world about sin , and about righteousness, and about judgment: 9 about sin , because they do not believe in Me; about righteousness, because I am going to My Father and you will no longer see Me; about judgment , because the ruler of this world Satan has been judged and condemned.
John 16:8-11
May He grant you out of the riches of His glory, to be strengthened and spiritually energized with power through His Spirit in your inner self, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through your faith. And may you, having been deeply rooted and securely grounded in love, be fully capable of comprehending with all God’s people the width and length and height and depth of His love; and that you may come to know through personal experience the love of Christ which far surpasses mere knowledge without experience, that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God.
Ephesians 3:16-19
Unless we have the indwelling Holy Spirit, the Scriptures will be utter nonsense to us.
Ron,
Thank you for sharing your insights this morning. As I read through John 16: 8, I am picturing the Holy Spirit with a big strainer in his hand, dipping it in and out of my bucket. With each pass he convicts me of sin, righteousness, and judgment; separating the sin out and making room for the Lord’s righteousness.
Excellent picture Jeff. The beginning has brought us to Christ, the life long straining process provides growth to the degree we surrender our will to His.
Interesting question and great comment chain. I don’t have much to add. There is what is in my heart (Jeremiah 17; 9; John 2: 24 – 25) and what I want in my heart (Galatians 5: 22 – 23). The difference is The Holy Spirit in my heart and my obeying Him.
Rich,
The Jeremiah and John passages are heart-rending. The fruit of the Spirit brings joy.
I have noticed in life that the more expertise one has on a subject, the more attuned to detail they are. Someone who is extremely immersed in a subject will notice details that the average person cannot even see. They also can miss the progress already made.
I think it is important to have both a micro vision and a macro – able to see the big picture – to see how much God has already done in our lives as well as what we have to work on. As Paul writes in Colossians 2: 6-7 —
“So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live your lives in him, rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness.“
Good word brother.
The first letter thing only works if your the only one with the first letter. Great now I wont know if its Rich Rin or Ralph.
* Rich, Ron, Rob, Ralph, or Joe.
Tim,
I have to agree. Using initials only depersonalizes the comments. If everyone disappears behind an initial, it will change how we engage here.
Kind of like the automobile painting.