A Little Off—How We Can Slowly Slip into Our Old Ways

A Little Off—How We Can Slowly Slip into Our Old Ways

Deuteronomy 6.4-9

"4 Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. 5 Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. 6 These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. 7 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. 8 Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. 9 Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates"


Someone once made a great analogy about man's commitment to the Lord's laws: serving the Lord is like building a foundation--if you get just one piece off and keep using the measurement, your structure will not be sound at the end. That's a great analogy, and unfortunately it's one to which we fall victim far too often. Beloved, it is so easy to become complacent in following the Lord's commands. We have the freedom of Christ, but we often stretch this freedom to go back into slavery--sin. God tells us in His word, however, that we are not to do this. Here in Deuteronomy 6 we see God telling His children to "[l]ove the LORD with all [their hearts] and with all [their souls] and with all [their] strength." God takes these commands so seriously that He tells His people that "[t]hese commandments...are to be upon [their] hearts."


If God takes His commands so seriously, it is imperitive that we follow them just as He says. How do we do that? He tells us that we do that by "[impressing] them on [our] children, [talking] about them when [we] sit at home and when [we] walk along the road, when [we] lie down and when [we] get up." So the commmands of the Lord should be continually upon our hearts and minds. We should talk about them to our children, at home, work, when we lie down to go to sleep and when we arise from our sleep. Beloved, when we meditate upon God's commands, we dedicate ourselves to His eternal measurement. There is no chance for us to get off on our measurements because our measurements are His measurements. So, let us reflect upon Christ every moment we can. Let us remember His ways and make them our ways. When we do so, we not only obey the Lord, but we benefit as well. We feel so much better when we serve the Lord!


We are also told to "[t]ie [the commandments] as symbols on [our] hands and bind them on [our] foreheads." We are to "[w]rite them on the doorframes of [our] houses and on [our] gates." The reason God uses such strong terminology is because He wants to stress just how serious it is for us to remain in His ways. Beloved, sin is so dangerous and so easy to fall into that God tells us to bind His laws in us. Write them in permanent marker! Emphasize them day after day after day. Teach them, reflect upon them, consider them in every action you undertake. Is what your doing what the Lord wants you to do? Even if it seems a little off, remember that a little off often means a lot off later on.


Beloved, if you have strayed from the Lord's decrees today, return to them. Remember that "there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death" (Romans 8.1-2). If you have fallen away from the Lord, He will not smite you :) He simply wishes you to come back to His will so that you may once again be molded into His image. But He can't mold you unless you're willing. Will you obey the Lord today, regardless of what He says? We must, beloved. We must put the commands of the Lord upon our hearts and minds each day. Amen.


With love in Christ,




Austin Aldrich