An Ordered Life | Mark 12:28-44 | Austin Glenn

What if the secret to a fulfilling life comes down to one simple question: What do you love most?

In Mark 12, Jesus gives us a surprisingly simple answer: "Love God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength." But this isn't merely about feelings or emotions toward God. It's about what ultimately orients our entire lives.

Augustine said, "Love is the weight by which we act." He described love as a force that pulls us toward whatever we have made most important. What we love shapes what we pursue, what we sacrifice for, what we fear losing, and ultimately, who we become.

The problem isn't that we love too much. Often, we love the wrong things too much. Success, comfort, relationships, approval, money, achievement, or control can quietly take the place that belongs to God. And when lesser loves become ultimate loves, something inside us becomes disordered. We may have everything we thought we wanted and still feel restless.

Are there places in our hearts where we've put up a No Trespassing sign? Areas we've surrendered to everything except God, including our time, ambitions, relationships, money, future, or the parts of ourselves we're determined to keep control over?

Jesus gives us a picture of wholehearted love in the widow who offers two small coins. On the surface, she gives almost nothing. But Jesus sees what everyone else misses: she holds nothing back. Her story challenges us to ask: What am I still holding back?

Rightly ordered love doesn't mean loving everything else less. It means loving everything else in the right place. When God becomes our greatest love, our other loves become healthier, freer, and more rightly ordered.

Maybe the restlessness we feel isn't because we need more, but because our loves have been pulling us in too many directions. True satisfaction isn't found by adding another priority to our crowded lives, but by returning our greatest love to the center. Our hearts remain restless until they rest in Him.

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Mark 12:28-44 The Great Commandment 28 And one of the scribes came up and heard them disputing with one another, and seeing that he answered them well, asked him, "Which commandment is the most important of all?" 29 Jesus answered, "The most important is, 'Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. 30 And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.' 31 The second is this: 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' There is