Wholehearted

Journal, Sunday 2-1-2026

I am grateful to have the new pegboards for the shop constructed and up!

Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one! You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength.

— Deuteronomy 6:4-5

Me: Good morning, Father!

Abba: Good morning, Jon!

Me: This made me think of the adjective wholehearted. When I look at the definition, I find:

1. completely and sincerely, determined or enthusiastic
2. marked by complete earnest commitment; free from all reserve or hesitation.

That said, the verse in Deuteronomy 6 indicates that is not all; more than heart is concerned. I have envisioned the heart to contain the soul (reason/mind, emotions, will, conscience, self-awareness, faith/unbelief, etc.). Does this passage in Deuteronomy 6 negate that concept? I have based my thinking about this matter on many passages.

“who has also placed his seal on us and given us His Spirit in our hearts as a guarantee”

2 Corinthians 1:22

— And as other examples:

Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts.

Psalm 139:23

And

For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.

Hebrews 4:12

Abba: I want you to think about this passage in Romans 1, and how the soul affects the heart and how the heart affects the body. And, how some make a habit out of serving the body and its senses. As you know, that gets to be an accelerating vicious circle going to no good end.

Therefore, God gave them over in the desires of their hearts to impurity for the dishonoring of their bodies with one another. They exchanged the truth of God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.

For this reason, God gave them over to dishonorable passions. Even their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones. Likewise, men abandoned natural relations with women and burned with lust for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error.

Furthermore, since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, He gave them up to a depraved mind to do what ought not to be done. They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed, and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, malice, maliciousness. Gossips, slanderers, hateful to God, insolent, arrogant, boastful; inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, foolish, untrustworthy, heartless, unmerciful; who having known the righteous judgment of God, that those doing such things are worthy of death, not only are practicing them, but are also approving of those practicing them.

— Romans 1:24-32

Surely, you recognize this in action in your day, as it was in Paul’s.

A good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth good; and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart brings forth evil. For out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks.

Luke 6:45

The exhortation to love Me with all your heart and all your soul, and all your strength is not saying the soul is not contained in the heart. It emphasizes wholeheartedness, as you have already observed. Not everyone considers the soul a part of the heart simply because they have not considered it. By pointing out details, the text aims to get you to consider the trouble with holding back in any area of your relationship with Me.

David saw it:

Bless the Lord, O my soul! And all that is within me, bless His Holy Name.

— Psalm 103:1

So, “wholehearted” is a good word. An unreserved heart set on Me results in an unfettered soul and directs the body to good and powerful actions.

Me: Thank You, Father! I love You!

Abba: You are welcome! I love you!