Day 9 – Mark 12:28-30
by Jason

So after reading the text, some of you may be thinking…. why is this here, it has nothing to do with the Christmas story. But this has more to do with our attitude to Christmas and to God.

A lot of the conversations at school and even at Youth Group have been around the question, how do we know this is true? How is this valid? ‘Why does Jesus gain so much credibility?’ Because He did.

In this passage there is a teacher of the law (so an intelligent man) who has seen that Jesus has made a good argument, and given a good answer to a previous question. Jesus had shown all integrity and had built up trust with His followers so that they KNEW He was telling the truth, however outrageous it might sound.

Jesus goes on to say that of all the 10 Commandments (that are the centre of the Jewish law), the most important is to ‘love the Lord our God with everything we have’. Put in our heart, soul, mind and strength into how we love God. Society forces us to live out our faith half-heartedly, and in turn this puts us at risk of forming doubt over our faith. It’s a huge challenge.

Jesus, in todays passage, gives us  both reason to trust Him, and how to trust Him. Consider today if you you are in a place to love God with everything? If not, what is getting in the way? What doubts are clouding your minds? Ask God to clear the doubt, and see what comes of it. Jesus, whom we can trust, asks us to put Him first. Above everything else. That doesn’t mean we can’t love anyone else, or enjoy anything else, but it asks us to get our priorities straight.