“Now what I am
commanding you today is not too difficult for you or beyond your reach. It is not up in heaven, so that you have to
ask, ‘Who will ascend…and get it…and proclaim it to us?’ Nor is it beyond the sea, so that you have to
ask, ‘Who will cross…to get it…and proclaim it to us?’ No, the word is very near you; it is in your
mouth and in your heart…Now choose life, so that you…may love the LORD your God,
listen to his voice, and hold fast to him.
For the LORD is your life...” De 30:11-20.
Today’s passage is one of the most eloquent and beautiful
exhortations in the Bible. It was spoken
by a man who understood that life would crowd in and steal God’s message. It is a speech that laid out the dangers of
being spiritually lazy, depending on others for their fellowship with God. Moses had been both leader and spiritual
intercessor for these people. He had
shown them that fellowship with God led to truth, promise and personal
revelation. Repeatedly they had turned
away from the Lord although they had the message in their heart and mind. They allowed the distractions and earthly
callings to elevate their focus above their time with God. Moses cautioned them ‘But if your heart turns away…and if you are
drawn away... you will not live long in the land you are …to enter and
possess’ De 30:18.
God has a beautiful plan for each of our lives but He is
not going to just drop it from heaven.
Only will we determine His purpose through the dedicated and intentional
time we carve out for Him. Life will
always present a landscape of competing worship…those things that we deem our
time must go towards. We must have an
inward devotion to God to receive the secret things of the Lord (De 29:29). We all have a land He wants us to enter, a
land where our greatest strengths collide with His greatest power. Our spiritual impact is determined by our
spiritual fellowship with the Father. No
one is going 'to ascend to heaven or cross the sea' for us to determine our
future. It is only through time with the
Father and communion with His spirit.
The world will draw us away if we allow it so it is so important to
consider Paul’s beautiful words to the Colossians, ‘…set your hearts on things above…Set your
minds on things above, not on earthly things.
For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God’
(Colossians 3:1-2). We can all have the same measure of God in our lives...it
is up to us to determine the level of intimacy we share with
Him.
I read a powerful statement this morning in my Bible
Study, A Woman’s Heart – God’s Dwelling Place, p. 142. Beth Moore states that we are all to be
priests for God with the same calling the priests of the Old Testament had upon
their lives. We are to have ‘internal devotion in the midst of external
commotion.’
‘Now
choose life…’
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