WORDS TO LIVE BY

WORDS TO LIVE BY

READ:

Deuteronomy 4:1-9

Surely I have taught you

statues and judgments…

that you should act according

to them.  –Deuteronomy 4:5

For many years I’ve maintained a file folder labeled “Speaking.”  It has become thick with articles, quotations, and illustrations that might be useful.  Recently I went through it to discard things that are out of date.  I found it difficult to throw away many of the items, not because I haven’t used them in a talk but because I haven’t put them into practice.  I closed the folder thinking, “These aren’t words to talk about; these are words to live by.”

After 40 years in the desert, Moses addressed the people poised to enter the Promised Land:  “Now, O Israel, listen to the statues and the judgments which I teach you to observe, that you may live, and go in and possess the land which the LORD God of your fathers is giving you” Deuteronomy 4:1).  Moses’ repeated theme (vv.1,2,5,6,9) is that God’s commandments are to be kept.  He said it well, “Surely I have taught you statues and judgments…that you should act according to them” (v.5).

It is so easy to talk about doing more than we actually do and to speak about truth we’re not living by.  We can become bloated with words, yet starved for reality, forgetting that all of God’s commands flow from His heart of love for us. –David McCasland

Help us, Lord, not to be just hearers of the Word;

help us to be doers as well.  Teach us to be honest

with ourselves about who we really are.  We want

to walk in Your ways and to guide others to You.

The strength of our actions

should match the strength of our words.

INSIGHT

Far from being a burden, the commands God gave to the Israelites were life-giving.  They outlined a life lived in response to His love.  In today’s text, Moses reminded the Israelites that the commands were for their wisdom and understanding (v.60).  The result of living by the words of the Lord would be that the nations around them would recognize the one true God (vv.7-8).

Have a blessed day and week ahead.

God Our Creator’s Love Always

Unity & Peace