Devotion to God

Because he is absolute, Jesus doesn’t offer a path of devotion that consists of daily prayer and piety to God. He wants total, unswerving devotion: You shall love the Lord your God with all your mind.

In other words, every thought must be of God and every action directed toward him. Such a teaching is unworkable except for the most pious of recluses. The same holds true for the complete selflessness required on the path of service and the total fixation on spirituality required on the path of contemplation.

But denying the world is a path to extinction, which no one can advocate. Nor can we assume that Jesus wanted us to annihilate our egos and personalities in the name of God. It’s more reasonable to assume that reaching Heaven requires an unfolding process.

Devotion, service, and contemplation remain viable ways to transform yourself, yet even the most devout Christians fall into the trap of believing that they don’t have to transform themselves inwardly, that performing enough acts of devotion will suffice or that doing charitable work among the poor and sick, or thinking about God as often as possible, will be sufficient.

Jesus warns us against this trap when he speaks, in parable form, about seed that falls on waste ground and doesn’t sprout. The seed is his teaching; the waste ground is a mind unprepared to receive the truth.

What Jesus doesn’t elaborate upon is how waste ground can be made fertile. We are neither hopeless nor fully realized in God. We turn to Jesus because he understands the territory of the unknown, the source not only of a messiah but of the soul itself.

Adapted from The Third Jesus: The Christ We Cannot Ignore, by Deepak Chopra (Harmony Books, 2008).

Read more: Deepak Chopra's Tips, Spirit, devotion, God, Jesus

Disclaimer: The views expressed above are solely those of the author and may not reflect those of
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Dorota L.

7:13PM PST on Dec 4, 2011

"every thought must be of God and every action directed toward him. Such a teaching is unworkable except for the most pious of recluses."

That is assuming that god is separate from self and others. What if your god is your people, yourself and your world? Then you every action and every thought WILL be for god -- it cannot be of anything else. You will be worshiping your fellow peoples, yourself and nature, constantly. Nothing wrong with that.

Surprised that Deepak does not see it. He's always teaching us that duality is not the end of it and here he seems to be dual. He tends to be too intellectual at times but still brilliant.

send a green star

Sonny H.

11:20PM PST on Dec 1, 2011

Might? All in one's mind? What the mind can conceive ... achieve...

Don S.

8:22PM PST on Nov 29, 2011

I would actually prefer to love with all my might than with all of my mind. (Imanagine Elmer Fudd's voice here)You know how twicky those little wrasscally little minds can be!

Charlene M.

3:36PM PST on Nov 29, 2011

The prophets declared doom unendingly. We don’t know if anyone ever asked, What exactly does God want from us?” Had that question been posed then or if it is today. Micah is a great place to go for the answer. He gives it to us in Micah 6:8 –
“ He has shown you what is good and what does the LORD require of you but to do justly to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God. Those are fairly simple instructions, but impossible to do unless God Himself empowers us, which is what He does through the ministry of His Holy Spirit. What a great God we serve! He tells us what to do then enables us to do it. Read Micah.

3:34PM PST on Nov 29, 2011

3:33PM PST on Nov 29, 2011

3:23PM PST on Nov 29, 2011

3:14PM PST on Nov 29, 2011

The prophets declared doom unendingly. We don't know if anyone ever asked. "What exactly does God want from us? "Had that question been posed then or if it is today. Micah is a great place to go for the answer. He gives it to us in Micah 6:8 "He has shown you what is good and what does the Lord require of you but to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humble with your God?". Those are fairly simple instructions, but absolutely impossible to do unless God Himself empowers us, which is what He does throught the ministry of His Holy Spirit. What a great God we serve! He tells us what to do then enables us to do it.
Read Micah.

3:07PM PST on Nov 29, 2011

The prophets declared doom unendingly. We don't know if anyone ever asked. "what exactly does God want from us? Had that question been posed then or if it is today. Micah is a great place to go for the answer. He gives it to us in Micah 6:8:, "He has shown you... what is good and what does the Lord require of you be to do justly to love mercy and to walk humble with your God?" Those are fairly simple instructions, but absolutely impossible to do unless God Himself empowers us, which is what He does through the ministry of His Holy Spirit. What a great God we serve! Hes tells us what to do then enable us to do it.
Read Micah!

Ron G.

1:41PM PST on Nov 29, 2011

Don S....How about looking at that verse yourself ? ..It does say mind for it refers to the whole being of us.But I still see nothing wrong with also saying .."all your might " for that will mean loving with everything you have would it not ?