“Make doing your best a habit, and you’ll never know not doing your best. If you build roads, then build them Roman—make them last two thousand years. Dig ditches as if you were taking them to the state fair to win another blue ribbon for best ditches . . .”
―
―
DEUTERONOMY 8-10
1Be careful to follow every command I am giving you today, so that you may live and increase and may enter and possess the land the Lord promised on oath to your ancestors. 2Remember how the Lord your God led you all the way in the wilderness these forty years, to humble and test you in order to know what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep his commands. 3He humbled you, causing you to hunger and then feeding you with manna, which neither you nor your ancestors had known, to teach you that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord. 4Your clothes did not wear out and your feet did not swell during these forty years. 5Know then in your heart that as a man disciplines his son, so the Lord your God disciplines you.(8:1-5)
1Be careful to follow every command I am giving you today, so that you may live and increase and may enter and possess the land the Lord promised on oath to your ancestors. 2Remember how the Lord your God led you all the way in the wilderness these forty years, to humble and test you in order to know what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep his commands. 3He humbled you, causing you to hunger and then feeding you with manna, which neither you nor your ancestors had known, to teach you that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord. 4Your clothes did not wear out and your feet did not swell during these forty years. 5Know then in your heart that as a man disciplines his son, so the Lord your God disciplines you.(8:1-5)
MARK 12:28-44
28One of the teachers of the law came and heard them debating. Noticing that Jesus had given them a good answer, he asked him, “Of all the commandments, which is the most important?”
29“The most important one,” answered Jesus, “is this: ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one.e 30Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’f 31The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’g There is no commandment greater than these.”
32“Well said, teacher,” the man replied. “You are right in saying that God is one and there is no other but him. 33To love him with all your heart, with all your understanding and with all your strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself is more important than all burnt offerings and sacrifices.”
34When Jesus saw that he had answered wisely, he said to him, “You are not far from the kingdom of God.” And from then on no one dared ask him any more questions.
JOURNAL
I love this verse in Deuteronomy! "That as a man disciplines his son, so the Lord your God disciplines you." God is for us, he desires that we become our best, but in order to do so we must go through struggles, times of heartache and times when we wonder "what's the point of it all?" God does this to bring us to him, to teach us to trust him and to realize that we are not all powerful, that this world is not just about us and our desires. To then juxtapose this with Jesus words on the greatest commandment...the message could not be more clear.
God desires that we surrender to him and love each other. It's not complicated but yet it is...it's complicated because it means going against some habits and ways of living that are pretty well ingrained in my subconscious. Those habits are often at odds with seeking God first and equally in truly loving others. It is painful to really confront some of my thoughts and motives and realize how selfish they often are. Which is why seeking God and loving him first is so critical. This discipline takes my comfort, laziness, and selfishness off the table. It demands that I empty myself of my own agenda and replace it with God's. This daily surrender is ultimately an impossible task to master. Confronting this constant failure means that I am continually faced with my own flaws and sin. It's unnatural and can be pretty depressing. Yet what God offers in return is his spirit of love, power and self-control. Not my flawed mind and spirit but rather his...which was fleshed out in the life of Jesus.
This is why God asks for everything and not just a portion of my mind and heart. It is a daily, moment by moment experience and in the end it promises to change me into a conduit of God's own love and power.
God desires that we surrender to him and love each other. It's not complicated but yet it is...it's complicated because it means going against some habits and ways of living that are pretty well ingrained in my subconscious. Those habits are often at odds with seeking God first and equally in truly loving others. It is painful to really confront some of my thoughts and motives and realize how selfish they often are. Which is why seeking God and loving him first is so critical. This discipline takes my comfort, laziness, and selfishness off the table. It demands that I empty myself of my own agenda and replace it with God's. This daily surrender is ultimately an impossible task to master. Confronting this constant failure means that I am continually faced with my own flaws and sin. It's unnatural and can be pretty depressing. Yet what God offers in return is his spirit of love, power and self-control. Not my flawed mind and spirit but rather his...which was fleshed out in the life of Jesus.
This is why God asks for everything and not just a portion of my mind and heart. It is a daily, moment by moment experience and in the end it promises to change me into a conduit of God's own love and power.
No comments:
Post a Comment