Each day during the month of March we will be sharing a devotional from a booklet written by Steve Love. Steve is a member of Canton First and a Traumatic Brain Injury survivor. If you would like a complete PDF of this devotional, it can be downloaded here.
Day 7
Matthew 22:37 (New International Version)
Jesus replied: ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’
Jesus tells us to “Love the Lord your God.” Your God means a personal God, one with whom we have a relationship. Just like any relationship, a relationship with God needs to be maintained. We maintain our relationship with our friends by spending time together, talking and interacting in person or by phone or email. We love to go over to our friend’s house to spend time with them. We talk and interact with God through prayer. In this world, we spend time with God by reading the Bible and going to church. Someday we will live with Him in His home, heaven.
Jesus tells us we are to love God, “with all your heart and with all your soul and with your all mind.” The people who were listening to Him saw the heart, mind, and soul as interrelated. By linking the three – heart, mind, and soul – Jesus tells us that our entire being is to love God. Because we have our heart/mind/soul intact we can love God the way Jesus told us. Our brain injury does not stop us from fulfilling this command of Jesus.
The life of a person with a brain injury is filled with limitations. Many who have a mild brain injury will be able to live their life without any restrictions. Life for them goes on like nothing has happened. Many others of us must fight to maintain any type of normal life. What is a normal life?
Wheelchairs, canes, walkers, feeding tubes, and many more devices help us live a “normal life.” Much of our mental energy is spent on simple tasks. Limitations hinder us from doing most tasks that the “normal” individual gives no thought to. We do have limitations we have to address in our lives. The one area which is free from limitations is our love for God. We still can love Him with all our heart, and with all our soul, and with our entire mind.
We might not to be able to follow formal worship services like we once did. The ventilator which helped me breathe and kept me alive in my coma also damaged my vocal cords. I can no longer sing the songs of praise and worship. But I can still hear the words and allow them to minister to my heart/mind/soul. None of my limitations can stop me from worshiping God and loving Him. We can have a personal relationship with God despite any limitations.
Pray and thank God that we still can love Him.
Pray and thank God for the personal relationship we have with Him.
Pray and ask God to help us with the limitations that we face.