613 Mitzvot
Positive Mitzvah # 5
To serve YHVH

Sh'mot (Exodus) 23:25
Va'avadetem et YHVH Eloheychem uverach et-lachmecha ve'et-meymeycha vahasiroti machalah mikirbecha.
And you shall serve YHWH your Elohey, and He will bless your bread, and your water; and I will take sickness away from the midst of you.

D'varim (Deuteronomy) 11.13
Vehayah im-shamoa tishme'u el-mitsvotay asher anochi metsaveh etchem hayom le'ahavah et-Adonay Eloheychem ule'ovdo bechol-levavchem uvechol-nafshechem.
And it shall come to pass, if ye shall hearken diligently unto My commandments which I command you this day, to love YHWH your Elohey, and to serve Him with all your heart and with all your soul.

D'varim (Deuteronomy) 13.5(4)
Acharey Adonay Eloheychem telechu ve'oto tira'u ve'et-mitsvotav tishmoru uvekolo tishma'u ve'oto ta'avodu uvo tidbakun.
After YHWH your Elohey shall you walk, and Him shall you fear, and His commandments shall you keep, and unto His voice shall you hearken, and Him shall you serve.

The Sifre says: 'to serve Him means Prayer'. It is also said 'to serve Him means study of the Torah,' and 'Serve Him through His Torah, and serve Him in His sanctuary' (Sifre).

The mitzvah says that serving YHVH means to walk after Him and obey His mitzvot (commands) and listen to His voice.

When we serve Him in prayer, it is important that we pray with kavanah, devotion, or more literally: direction of heart. Maimonides writes: 'Prayer without devotion is no prayer at all. The who has prayed without devotion is under obligation to recite his prayers over again. Now what is devotion? One must free his heart from all other thoughts and regard himself as standing in the presence of G-d. Therefore, before engaging in prayer, the worshipper should collect himself in order to bring himself into a devotional frame of mind, and then pray quietly and with feeling" (Mishneh Torah, Ahabah, Hilchot Tefillah, 6, 15-16).

But yet, one should serve Him with kavannah, direction of heart, as if one is standing in His presence in all things that we serve Him in, not just prayer. For the mitzvah says we are to serve Him with all our heart and soul.

Y'hoshua (Joshua) 24.14-15
Now therefore fear YHWH, and serve Him in sincerity and in truth; and put away the gods which your fathers served beyond the River, and in Egypt; and serve YHWH. If it seem evil to you to serve YHVH, choose you this day whom you will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that were beyond the River, or the gods of the Amori, in whose land you dwell: but as for me and my house, we will serve YHVH.

This is a familiar verse. We have seen signs in homes saying, "As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord." But we need to serve Him with sincerity and truth, with kavannah.

And yet Yehoshua told the people, "You can't serve the LORD; for he is a holy God; he is a jealous God" (Yehoshua/Joshua 24.19). That is because the yetzer hara (evil inclination) keeps on drawing us away.

For the good which I desire, I don't do; but the yetzer hara (evil inclination) which I don't desire, that I practice. But if what I don't desire, that I do, it is no more I that do it, but sin which dwells in me. I find then the Torah, that, to me, while I desire to do good, the yetzer hara (evil inclination) is present. For I delight in YHVH's Torah after the inward man, but I see a different law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity under the law of sin which is in my members.What a wretched man I am! Who will deliver me out of the body of this death? (Romans 7:19-24)

Hebrews 9:14
then how much more the blood of the Messiah, who, through the eternal Ruach HaKodesh, offered himself to Elohim as a sacrifice without blemish, will purify our conscience from works that lead to death, so that we can serve the living Elohim!

The blood of the Messiah and Ruach HaKodesh enable us to serve YHVH. We serve Him by submitting to His will, and keeping our yetzer (inclination). on him.

Romans 8:4-5
In order that the maleh chukat haTorah (the full statute requirement of the Torah - see Vayikra/Leviticus 18:5) might be fulfilled in us who walk in the Derech HaChayyim (the Way of Life) according to Ruach Hakodesh (Holy Spirit). and not in accordance with the flesh. For those who live according to the flesh set their yetzer (inclinations) on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to Ruach Hakodesh (Holy Spirit), have their yetzer set on the things of the Ruach Hakodesh (Holy Spirit).

This is kavannah, our devotion and direction of heart toward Him!