“And now, Israel, what does the Lord your God require of you, but to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and to keep commandments and statues of the Lord, which I am commanding you today for your good?” 10:12-13
From the beginning the God’s plan has been all about love in fact, it’s the greatest love story ever told. It’s not about following every command because we could never live up to his standards. It always was and always will be about loving him and having faith in his promises. The people of the Old Testament put their faith in the promise of Jesus. The people of the New Testament put their faith in the fulfillment of the promise. Either way, it was faith not the rules and regulations that earns salvation. The commandments were simply for their good; for our good! God knew it would all too easy for us to get distracted and turn from him. He knew it wouldn’t take much for us to turn our head to the right or to the left so he reminded us to purge the evil and meditate on his Word day and night.
“You shall therefore lay up these words of mine in your heart and in your soul, and you shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall teach them to your children, talking of them when you are sitting in your house, and when you are walking by the way and when you lie down, and when you rise. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates, that your days and the days of your children may be multiplied in the land that the Lord swore to your fathers to give them, as long as the heavens are above the earth.” 11:18-22
God’s Word should be at the forefront of our minds. Not just on Sundays at church or Wednesday night bible study but each and every morning, afternoon and evening. Every situation that comes up. To this day there are some who still have scriptures written over their doorposts as reminders. I look around my home and wonder if anyone would be able to tell what I believe in if they visited my home. Would it be obvious that I love the Lord? Are there things around my home that remind me and my children of the promise God made?
God’s command to love and serve him came with an incredible promise. We have the Creator of the universe’s promise of love and protection.
Be careful to obey all these words that I command you , that it may go well with you and with your children after you forever, when you do what is good and right in the sight of the Lord your God. 12:28
I still have a hard time comprehending in my mind the amazing love my Lord has for me. That he would choose me…..it takes my breath away. God didn’t need me for any reason whatsoever but he chose me. I was hand chosen by God to believe.
“Behold, to the Lord your God belong heaven and the heaven of heavens, the earth with all that is in it. Yet the Lord set his heart in love on your fathers and chose their offspring after them, you above all peoples, as you are this day.” 10:14-15.
Thank you, Lord for choosing me to be called a child of God. Thank you that even though you didn’t need me, you wanted me. Lord, help to live everyday walking in your spirit and laying up your words in my heart.
Sixty-six books in a year 