Daily D – Deuteronomy 6:4-9
Deuteronomy 6:4-9
“Listen, Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength. These words that I am giving you today are to be in your heart. Repeat them to your children. Talk about them when you sit in your house and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Bind them as a sign on your hand and let them be a symbol on your forehead. Write them on the doorposts of your house and on your city gates.“ (CSB)
”Attention, Israel! God, our God! God the one and only! Love God, your God, with your whole heart: love him with all that’s in you, love him with all you’ve got! Write these commandments that I’ve given you today on your hearts. Get them inside of you and then get them inside your children. Talk about them wherever you are, sitting at home or walking in the street; talk about them from the time you get up in the morning to when you fall into bed at night. Tie them on your hands and foreheads as a reminder; inscribe them on the doorposts of your homes and on your city gates.“ (MSG)
—
Here again is God’s command to hear and obey. (See the BibleProject video, “Shema: ‘Listen’” on how hearing and obeying is the full intention of the one Hebrew word, Shema. [https://youtu.be/6KQLOuIKaRA])
When God says, “Listen,” he wants us to hear and live. He wants us to hear his heart turned toward us, full of love, grace, mercy, and blessing. When he calls us to obey, he is telling us how to experience his grace, mercy, and blessing.
The good life is available to everyone who hears and obeys. The reason we live so poorly so often is because we ignore what God says or attempt a half-hearted implementation of doing what he says. We pick and choose the commands we obey. We decide the others are out of step with our times. Consider this: If we find ourselves out of step with God, we are in step away from God’s goodness. That is a pathway ably demonstrated to lead to unnecessary pain, suffering, and conflict.
We live about as well as we choose. Choose life. Choose the good life. Choose to listen to God, to seek his will and ways, and to do what he says. Life by God’s design is peace and purpose. It is blessing upon blessing.
Know and experience God. Help your children and grandchildren know and experience God. Live in such a way that God’s goodness and grace overflow into their lives. May they see in you what you have seen in God.
Every moment is a teachable moment. Every experience is an opportunity to tell what we have heard and seen of God and what he is saying and doing in this moment. We have never lived a more significant moment than the very instant we read these words and think these thoughts. May what God is saying to us in this text preserved for all people for all time shape our lives and overflow with abundant goodness into the lives of those we relate to now and in the day before us.
Hear and Obey is the most important lesson you will ever learn.
Hear and Obey is the most important lesson you will ever model.
Hear and Obey is the most important lesson you will ever teach.
Jesus often asked, “Are you listening? Really listening?” How much richer and fuller life becomes when we say, “Yes, Lord, yes.” (See Matthew 11:15 in The Message.)
—
I will hear and obey God and lead others to do the same so that we may live the good life God intended.
—
Our Father, teach us again today, and day by day, how to hear and obey. Empower us to help others see the attractiveness of your goodness as it overflows our lives, and likewise learn to hear and obey. Amen.
CONNECT WITH ME!
Interested in learning more about Church Unique or Life Younique? Send a note through the Get In Touch box or Message me through the Facebook link above.
0 Comments