"These words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise." -Deuteronomy 6:6-7 (ESV)
As we get older and older, our lives become busier and busier. We get into high school, get a job, go to college, get a way better job, get married, start a family, then our children will get into high school, get jobs, and so on and so on until we die. But have you ever thought about the point of it all? What is the point? Life is just a continual cycle of ongoing stress, and things to keep us busy.
I know that this sounds depressing, but there is none. There is no point in any of this. "Vanity of vanities, says the Preacher, vanity of vanities! All is vanity. What does man gain by all the toil at which he toils under the sun? A generation goes, and a generation comes, but the earth remains forever," (Ecclesiastes 1:1-2).
However, if we have Christ, and if we follow Him, then our life is full of meaning. "For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain." (Philippians 1:21) Paul stated this in reference to him living his life in a way that would reflect Christ. As should ours. Christ should be our all, and we should focus our lives around Him, rather than Him around our lives. Yes, we can get so busy that it gets harder and harder to keep up with studying daily, but that doesn't make it any less important (for a further look at this subject, I encourage you to read Ecclesiastes, as it has a lot to say on this matter).
We need to not only find time in the day for Christ, but we need to envelope our lives in Him. Our school work, our jobs, our extracurriculars, our friends, our everything.
Here I would like to encourage you to stop, and read Deuteronomy 6:4-15, as I cannot put it here for space.
Here I would like to encourage you to stop, and read Deuteronomy 6:4-15, as I cannot put it here for space.
If you'll notice in verse five of Deuteronomy 6, we are commanded to love God with all of our heart, all of our soul, and with all of our might. Not with some. Not with most. But with all. We should be willing to turn all things to Him, and give up everything for Him. "But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For His sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ." We need to not be so worried about the things of this life that we forget Whom we are serving.
Continuing on to verses 6-9, we read that these words "shall be on your heart." (verse 6) and that we should fill our lives with His Words, and His commandments, and His promises. We are to fill our lives with His love, and reflect it in our actions. We should put reminders of His love everywhere. This is the unpopular part of Christianity. Why should we have to put so much effort into this? Why should we have to do all of these things? What is the purpose?
We find the answer in verse twelve, where it says, "take care lest you forget the Lord, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery." God, of course, was talking to the Israelites here, but that doesn't mean that this does not also apply to us. We as Christians, like the Israelites, are God's chosen people (1 Peter 2:9-10) and we have likewise been brought out of slavery, the slavery of sin, (Romans 6:18) and are now freed from it, just as the Israelites were freed from the Egyptians.
We cannot forget our Lord. We cannot forget what He has done for us. We cannot forget all that it takes to reach heaven. Why should we study daily? Why should we fill our lives with His words? Why should we count all things as loss? Because if we don't, then we will forget Him. And even if we continue to go to worship, and we continue to do the actions of service, without faith, and without love, none of these things matter (James 2:14-26; 1 Corinthians 13).
Today I would like to encourage you to study these matters for yourself, and to study daily, that you may grow closer to God, and become stronger in Him, that you may serve Him better. Not only that, but also so that you can teach others His words (Matthew 28:18-20) and that you may help others towards heaven, as well.
