When counseling young couples who are preparing for marriage, I always ask these questions: “Why do you love each other? Why do you want to spend the rest of your life with this person?” What I really want to hear is a flash of passion, a quake of desire. I don’t merely want to hear rational judgments (“We complement each other,” “Our families approve,” “I think we’d have the necessary elements for a successful family”). These observations are good, but I also want to hear how their souls yearn for one another, how they become more of their true selves in each other’s presence. I want to hear some indication that all they are is engaged in their transforming relationship that will culminate in marriage.

When religious leaders asked Jesus what He believed to be “the most important commandment in the law of Moses?” (Matthew 22:36), His answer revealed true conviction for wholeheartedness. He insisted that it’s not enough for us merely to obey God. The deeper work God desires is that we allow our whole selves to be awakened and our entire being to engage God. “You must love the LORD your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind,” Jesus said. “This is the first and greatest commandment” (Matthew 22:37-38).

To live wholeheartedly doesn’t mean to cordon off certain sections of our lives as “spiritual” and others as “nonspiritual.” To live wholeheartedly means we hope for more than merely discovering the minimum that God requires or clarifying the list of dreams or behaviors we must abandon. It’s finding our reality in Him and bowing our hearts before Him in worship and adoration. It’s reveling and rejoicing in the perfect love God has lavished on us.

NLT 365-day reading plan passage for today: John 13:1-20