With All My Heart - January 12 Readings: Deuteronomy 6

We are going to "enter the year with praise." Our January readings and devotionals will all focus on the goodness and grace of God. Get a journal or notebook to write down your thoughts every day. Our passages are shorter - please don't rush through them. Take time to meditate and consider why God is worthy of your praise.

Enter 2020 with the praise of God on your lips!

Today's Praise Passage:  Deuteronomy 6

“This is the command—the statutes and ordinances—the Lord your God has commanded me to teach you, so that you may follow them in the land you are about to enter and possess. 2 Do this so that you may fear the Lord your God all the days of your life by keeping all his statutes and commands I am giving you, your son, and your grandson, and so that you may have a long life. 3 Listen, Israel, and be careful to follow them, so that you may prosper and multiply greatly, because the Lord, the God of your fathers, has promised you a land flowing with milk and honey.
 4 “Listen, Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. 5 Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength. 6 These words that I am giving you today are to be in your heart. 7 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. 8 Bind them as a sign on your hand and let them be a symbol on your forehead. 9 Write them on the doorposts of your house and on your city gates.
 
10 “When the Lord your God brings you into the land he swore to your fathers Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob that he would give you—a land with large and beautiful cities that you did not build, 11 houses full of every good thing that you did not fill them with, cisterns that you did not dig, and vineyards and olive groves that you did not plant—and when you eat and are satisfied, 12 be careful not to forget the Lord who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the place of slavery. 13 Fear the Lord your God, worship him, and take your oaths in his name. 14 Do not follow other gods, the gods of the peoples around you, 15 for the Lord your God, who is among you, is a jealous God. Otherwise, the Lord your God will become angry with you and obliterate you from the face of the earth. 16 Do not test the Lord your God as you tested him at Massah. 17 Carefully observe the commands of the Lord your God, the decrees and statutes he has commanded you. 18 Do what is right and good in the Lord’s sight, so that you may prosper and so that you may enter and possess the good land the Lord your God swore to give your fathers, 19 by driving out all your enemies before you, as the Lord has said.
 20 “When your son asks you in the future, ‘What is the meaning of the decrees, statutes, and ordinances that the Lord our God has commanded you?’ 21 tell him, ‘We were slaves of Pharaoh in Egypt, but the Lord brought us out of Egypt with a strong hand. 22 Before our eyes the Lord inflicted great and devastating signs and wonders on Egypt, on Pharaoh, and on all his household, 23 but he brought us from there in order to lead us in and give us the land that he swore to our fathers. 24 The Lord commanded us to follow all these statutes and to fear the Lord our God for our prosperity always and for our preservation, as it is today. 25 Righteousness will be ours if we are careful to follow every one of these commands before the Lord our God, as he has commanded us.’

Through the Bible Reading: Genesis 25-26, Matthew 9:1–26, Psalm 8, Proverbs2:6-8

Some of our readers want a little more "meaty" devotional, so I am including a link to the through Through the Bible in One Year readings we did last year. 

Devotional: With All My Heart 

Deuteronomy 6 is one of the foundational passages of the Old Testament. It begins with the "Shema Y'israel" (Hear, O Israel), in 6:4 and follows with what Jesus identified as the greatest commandment, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.” Then in the next few chapters, Israel is told how to live out that devotion, commanded to eschew idolatry of any form, to trust God against all enemies who would try to keep them from the work of God and to expect that the God who saved them from Egypt would establish them in the Promised Land. 

But the passage roots in the first command, to love God with all of our heart and soul and might. Nothing is to come between us and our devotion to God – the key in all of our struggles in life. 

It is easy to become obsessed with the spiritual battles we face. We focus on how to avoid lust, or stop losing our tempers, or break a habit, or (in my case) fight obesity. And we should face sin in the power of Christ and oppose it. But there are two things we need to remember as we engage in these battles. 

First, we do not have to fight sin to gain approval with God. We are accepted in Christ - fully, unreservedly and eternally. We seek to please him not to gain his approval but because he has already given us his approval in Christ. We love because he first loved us. This is a powerful fuel for our struggle. 

Second, all of our struggles with sin root in this battle - seeking to love God with all of our hearts, souls and might. Do I love God more than my food? Do I love God more than my addiction, more than my greed, more than my pride? Do I love him more than my hurts and bitterness? All of life is a battle to live out the truth of the Greatest Commandment. And it is a battle we ought to engage daily - seeking, struggling to focus all of our hearts and minds on Christ, desiring hearts and minds that are pure in their love for him. 

Thank God that we are accepted in Christ, because we always fall short of that noble goal. No matter how much I love God, I can always love him a little more, draw a little closer to him and seek him a little more fully. In the meantime, as this battle ensues, as we wage war against the flesh to love God with all our hearts, it is comforting to know that we are accepted in Christ even in our failure.

Finally, we see that these commands are rooted in the character of God - he is worthy of our love. Read through the passage and mark everything it says about God. He is one. He is jealous. He is a savior. The call to obedience and love is rooted in the character of God. 

We all live in the in-between - hovering between the ideal (pursuing God with all our hearts) and the real (our divided hearts). In the "in-between" we must remember these two truths. 

1) My highest calling is to love God with all my heart. Every other struggle or challenge in life is part of that battle - to love God.
2) In the midst of that struggle, and even in the midst of my failure, God's love for us is unshakable and eternal. 

In pursuing a life devoted to the love of God, we must remember who God is and worship him. Praise reminds us of the glory of God and inspires deep love and a desire to obey. 

Father, I do love you. Help me to love you more. Purify my heart that it may only beat for you! Help me to see you as you really are so that I may serve you and love you. 

Think and Pray:

Meditate on this passage and write down:

1. The character qualities of God for which you can praise him. 

2. The gracious acts of God for which you can give thanks to him. 

Read Deuteronomy 6 again and write down every characteristic of God mentioned.
The call to love God and obey him is rooted in his character.