Has God Commanded the Impossible?

You shall love the Lord [Yahweh] your God with your whole heart and with your whole mind and with your whole strength (Deut. 6:5).

This was the commandment given to Moses and re-iterated by Jesus as the greatest of all the commandments.  Is it possible?  Has God commanded something impossible, or at the least, impractical?

Many of the words of God we walk away from, as from an impossible dream.  We shrug our shoulders, thinking that we could not even begin to approach such a goal.  What we fail to realize is that we cannot keep even the least of the commandments, the ones we think are in our power to obey, by ourselves.  The more we read the Scriptures, the more we realize that one Scripture alone is not the whole story.  It is only when the Spirit begins to illuminate (teach us) the Scriptures by lining up one next to another, that we begin to understand what before seemed obscure or at least unrealistic.

The Bible does not yield its depths to those who read its surface; that is why we cannot take one Scripture only and expect it to "work," so to speak -- unless that one Scripture has been put into our hands as 'the sword of the Spirit' for the moment we need it.  The Bible is the word of God, but there are two Hebrew words for "word."  One is Logos, the stated, written Word; the other is Rhema, the spoken, living Word.

Both are revelation, but it takes the Spirit "hovering" over the Logos to make it live in our hearts.  Without the Spirit, the Word is like the land -- all the seeds and nourishment are in place, but it takes water to bring them to life. 

The Book of Zechariah says, "Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit," says the Lord Almighty.  That "word" is a clue to how we might love the Lord with our whole hearts, our whole minds, and our whole strengths -- not by "trying," but by yielding.  We cannot love God until we submit our hearts to Him.  When that happens, His Spirit rushes in to change our hearts, to spread throughout them the love of God.  And since the Spirit is infinite, His love continues to grow in us until we do indeed, love God with our whole hearts. 

The same is true of our minds.  A mind not yet submitted to God will never grasp the things of God, for they are taught to us by the Spirit.  We do not have to "try" to understand -- we cannot, anyway.  All we need do is to submit our minds to God, who is willing, indeed, Who loves to teach us.  His Spirit enters into the yielded mind and reveals to us the things of God -- things we will never know otherwise, no matter how much we study.

And our "strength."  Paul said that God's weakness is greater than our (greatest) strength.  When Jesus said, "Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth," He was not talking about weakness.  The word "Meek" in Aramaic has the connotations of a strong thoroughbred racehorse which is entirely under the control of its master.  Our "strength" must be yielded to God so that He can direct it to His purposes.  The Holy Spirit cares about our bodies as much as He does about our hearts and minds -- our souls.  He too will pour strength into us that we cannot even know we have, when we need that strength for God's purpose. 

God does not command the impossible -- He just wants us to ask Him how it might be done.