To love Him with all your heart, with all your understanding and with all your strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself is more important than all burnt offerings and sacrifices. Mark 12:33
“The heart must be empty of all other things; because God will possess the heart alone; and as He cannot possess it alone, without emptying it of all besides, so neither can He act there, and do in it what He pleases, unless it be left vacant to Him.”
Brother Lawrence (c. 1614-1691) in The Practice of the Presence of God: The Best Rule of Holy Life (Grand Rapids: CCEL) 22.
The famous scene in the Christmas story portrays Mary and Joseph finding “No room in the inn.” There was no vacancy for the young couple who would soon welcome our Lord Jesus Christ. No vacancy for Jesus.
During His ministry on earth, Jesus taught that more important than our generosity and sacrifices is our love for God and love of neighbor. Our tendency is to think we can love God and fill-in-the-blank. How are you doing in that regard? Do you have any other loves?
To grow in generosity, each of us must empty our heart of all other loves. Notice Jesus does not say love Him with part of our heart. Or to put it another way, He neither needs nor wants anything from us. He wants us.