Are you familiar with the passage that says you should love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength? It is easy to memorize and just think of it in terms of your whole being, but you can also unpack each item. To love God with all your heart and soul addresses the passionate aspect without which love cannot exist, and these are mentioned first for a reason. Yet your mind is also involved in the full expression of love, and you can practice your faith with intellectual rigor, but there is still another part. Love is not content to be idle and passive.

When you partake of communion, what passage of scripture is most commonly used? Are you accustomed to hearing, do this in remembrance of me, or so let a man examine himself? These are valid and applicable to the situation. What about except you eat the flesh and drink the blood of the Son of Man you shall have no life in you? This is just as pertinent and applicable but rarely used because it is so offensive to human sensibilities. My own disciples were offended and some of them quit following me but others remained because I had the words of life.

Does your faith make you a better or worse person? Do you find this question offensive? Yet I addressed it in great length in my interactions with the Pharisees. They were as devout and diligent in their practice of faith as you could ask for. Yet their practices made them less loving, caring, and compassionate, and provided them with excuses for their bad behavior. Their faith took them further away from me and made them worse people than if they had made no profession or affirmation of faith. Don’t think this issue is limited to a small sect that only existed for a short while.

Is there some big obstacle standing in your way; some impediment that prevents you from making the progress you want in your life? Perhaps you do not see things the same way I do. Paul complained of a thorn in his flesh, something he did not want and asked me three times to remove. This is what he wanted but I told him that my grace was sufficient for him. This is not what he wanted but he found out it was true and the thorn I refused to remove was part of my process of grace in his life. Do you have a thorn of your own? Are you still at the stage of asking me to remove it?