Constant Reminders.....

Deuteronomy 6:6-9 NIV

These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.

One of the saddest realities of our age is the reality of work. We have come to a point where what we want to possess have become more important to us that what God intends for us. We rise up early in the morning in pursuit of daily bread, striving hard to ensure that we can afford to put food on the table. We strain ourselves, sometimes to the point of death, pursuing after the symbols of success, forgetting that it is only in God that true success is found. It is only in God that true liberty can be found. As we strive to obey him, he strives to bless our work and give us al that we desire.

What I deduce from these verses is that it appears that there is no room for anything else except God's Word. It is to be our focus when we rise up, when we go out, when we come in and when we sit with our children. It is to be the only pursuit of our lives. How then do we find time for work and other things? I believe that the spirit of these verses requires that I see my entire life as a complete offering to God and his Word. In everything I do, say or think, and in the kind of company or friends that i keep, God is the only pursuit and priority. He is the standard, and everything else must answer to him or fall to pieces. When I segment my life, giving God control over some areas while retaining control over other areas, am I not deceiving myself? If I keep God out of my conversations and company, how would sin not be present? If there is no constant Presence guiding my words and thoughts, how would God be pleased to bless my work? If I understand what God requires, it then means that from my waking moments till I sleep, everything I do and say is guided by God. God is praised and lifted up in all my decisions. This, I believe, is the import of these verses quoted above.

Indeed, I must see my whole life as an offering to God. I must give God total access, allowing his Word total control over all my decisions. Only then can my life make an impact and be a blessing. His time of favour is here.