Housekeeping Rule #3 – Love the Lord thy God
“This is the commandment, the rules and regulations, that God, your God, commanded me to teach you to live out in the land you’re about to cross into to possess. This is so that you’ll live in deep reverence before God lifelong, observing all his rules and regulations that I’m commanding you, you and your children and your grandchildren, living good long lives.
Listen obediently, Israel. Do what you’re told so that you’ll have a good life, a life of abundance and bounty, just as God promised, in a land abounding in milk and honey.
Attention, Israel!
God, our God! God the one and only!
Love God, your God, with your whole heart: love him with all that’s in you, love him with all you’ve got!” Deuteronomy 6: 1-4 (MSG)
How can we love a God we don’t really know and can’t see. Who we may not be able to understand because He is not in our presence to communicate with us? Or is He?
Trying to love God without knowing Him is admittedly difficult in your own strength, but it isn’t too hard for God. When we obey God’s directive, to “turn from our wicked ways” – God is able to take over and this is what will happen:
“Here’s what will happen. While you’re out among the nations where God has dispersed you and the blessings and curses come in just the way I have set them before you, and you and your children take them seriously and come back to God, your God, and obey him with your whole heart and soul according to everything that I command you today, God, your God, will restore everything you lost; he’ll have compassion on you; he’ll come back and pick up the pieces from all the places where you were scattered. No matter how far away you end up, God, your God, will get you out of there and bring you back to the land your ancestors once possessed. It will be yours again. He will give you a good life and make you more numerous than your ancestors. God, your God, will cut away the thick calluses on your heart and your children’s hearts, freeing you to love God, your God, with your whole heart and soul and live, really live. ”
What happens when we turn – is that God meets us at that turn and He takes away our stony heart, and replaces it with a hert of clay. We find a perfect example of that when Saul was told by the prophet Samuel that he would be king. The story is too long for this venue, however it is great and encouraging reading – here is just a snipet –
And when Samuel saw Saul, the LORD said unto him, Behold the man whom I spake to thee of! this same shall reign over my people. 1Samuel 9:17 buy cardura
“After that you will go to Gibeah of God, where there is a Philistine outpost. As you approach the town, you will meet a procession of prophets coming down from the high place with lyres, tambourines, flutes and harps being played before them, and they will be prophesying. The Spirit of the LORD will come upon you in power, and you will prophesy with them; and you will be changed into a different person. 7 Once these signs are fulfilled do whatever your hand finds to do, for God is with you.”1 Samuel 10: 5-7 (NIV)
When we become a new man – we can love God!
God Bless You,
Maria
Amen!