My son, do not forget my teaching,
but let your heart keep my commandments,
2 for length of days and years of life
and peace they will add to you.
3 Let not steadfast love and faithfulness forsake you;
bind them around your neck (Proverbs 3:1-3a ESV)
Scripture overflows with truths to live by. Commands, teaching, precepts, rules, laws, directives, principles, and statutes make God’s expectations from us pretty clear and mostly unquestionable.
The point of all of those laws was not to save us, but rather to open our eyes to our fallenness and our need to fall solely on the grace of God. We should still study how God wants us to live and seek daily to follow His way, but our eternal hope comes in our identifying with Christ’s crucifixion on our behalf.
20 I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. (Galatians 2:20 ESV)
We can drop the nit-picky legalism and just follow his lead.
Get our eyes off the physical needs that thrill or entertain us, and awaken our spiritual eyes to the works of God around us. Simple trust is what He most calls us to.
27 Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you. For on him God the Father has set his seal.” 28 Then they said to him, “What must we do, to be doing the works of God?” 29 Jesus answered them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent” . . . my Father gives you the true bread from heaven. 33 For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.” 34 They said to him, “Sir, give us this bread always.”
35 Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst. (John 6:27-29; 32-35 ESV)
Of this we can be certain. He’s got the whole world in His hands. He is the bread of life. He satisfies. He loved and gave himself for us.
His word will never leave us hungry, except for more of Him.
Dear Lord, thank you that you provide all we need even in uncertain times when we have no choice but to live day by day. Help us realize the abundant rest that You can bring to this world, and reveal to us afresh Your certainty and completeness. In Jesus Name ~Amen.
Sixty-six books in a year 