Hello, and welcome to the last week of February. Today we read Deuteronomy 6-9.
The greatest commandment
This section starts with the commandment to love the Lord your God with all your heart and all your soul and all your strength. This was called out by Jesus in Matthew 22:37 as well.
What I find amazing about this commandment is that anyone would struggle to keep it. But we do. Like a dog chasing a squirrel, we scatter and easily divert our focus.
We go through our days without giving thought to our Savior. Conducting our lives as if He can’t see what we’re doing. Believing like Adam that we can hide from God. (See Gen 3:8-10)
God’s goodness shines upon us constantly. He has provided all we have and sustains our every breath. Without Him, not only do we have nothing, we are nothing.
Show and tell
But you would struggle to see that in the way most Christians live their lives.
Love is an action, not just an emotion. We may feel like we love God, but if our actions don’t match, it leaves some questions.
We are to keep it front and center and share it with the world. Putting Him on our foreheads. This means we should outwardly display our blessings and salvation. Drawing others to want to know Him.
Instead, many Christians looked beat down. We get this way because we are trying to face the world with our own strength. We forget we have God on our team and keep looking for a receiver who is open to throw the ball to. Meanwhile, Jesus is in the end-zone corner waving his arms so that we will see Him and toss it to Him.
We don’t want to lean upon the Lord, so we hesitate and suffer sack after sack. Losing yards and becoming more desperate than ever for a big play.
What we show
Verse 6:9 says we are to write them on the doorframes of our houses and on our gates. In my neighborhood, I have some houses with Trump-Vance flags still waving, and other neighbors still display Biden-Harris flags.
The encouraging thing is that we can still be neighbors and get along even with varied political preferences. But when I read this verse, I have to ask, do I know which neighbors are Christians?
I should know because, as a good neighbor, I should have invited them to church and shared my testimony with them. Since I haven’t done that, how would they know I am a Christian?
Driving by my house, you will notice a large metal dragon in my yard. But you won’t see anything that shows my allegiance to Jesus.
How many of you can say differently?
This passage tells us we need to do these things so that we don’t forget all that God has done for us. We have already admitted that we live our lives without thinking about all God has done.
The fire starter
We give Him the credit, but we just stop thinking about it. We deal with the new fire we have to put out.
That is Satan’s greatest trick. He keeps us engaged in our troubles, so we forget to think about God. It is like when Peter takes his eyes off Jesus and sinks when he was walking on the water. (see Matt 14:25-33).
When our focus comes off God, we then seek to make idols that will solve our problems. We gain more money so we can solve our problems. Now money is our idol.
We believe a team effort can influence changes that will solve our problems. Now a candidate or group becomes the center of most of our activity. That is our new idol.
In chapter 7, they are told when they defeat an enemy, they must destroy it completely.
Freedom in discipline
This is true today. An alcoholic can’t drink casually. An addict can’t use it lightly. If we call upon the Lord, He will deliver us. Then we must destroy that enemy.
When we are faithful to do this, verse 7:15 says the Lord will keep us free from every disease.
Our current news cycle aims to keep people in constant fear of everything. They sensationalize every story to make it seem like the sky is falling. They try to blame it on someone if they will make that connection, often when it does not exist.
However, with all that God has done for us, we read in chapter 8 that God will discipline us when we are not following Him. We see that father-son paradigm, a good father, will use what discipline is necessary to help their son develop proper character. So will our heavenly Father.
Trials remind us that when God feeds, clothes, and houses us, we often forget Him. We have no problems, so our success becomes our idol.
It is often when we have problems we seek the Lord, but when we don’t, we neglect that relationship. Chapter 9 warns us against this practice. We need to show our gratefulness by keeping Him the priority in our lives.
No person knows how many days they have left, and we should remember to share our faith with everyone daily.
