And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart.
Deuteronomy 6:6
Because of the New Testament perspective that I have on the Old Testament Law, I tend to minimize the impact God intended for His covenant with Israel. This verse stops me in my tracks and forces me to reconsider how I see it. The Law was not exclusively about outward works. It was about internal commitment and change at the heart level. The Law was supposed to impact Israel at the heart. This is where God wants to make a difference. It cannot be simply about outward conformity.
It is at the heart level that our core commitments live. And the reality is that love for the Lord must start there, from within, with all the heart, the soul, the mind, and the strength that we have (Deuteronomy 6:5). It is much more than a belief that God exists. That might just be a fantasy, like belief in the Easter Bunny, a magical genie, or Santa at Christmas. And simple belief alone does not real worship make!
Loving the Lord is not a mental exercise or mere wishing. It is a rigorous conviction that drives the believer from within even as it changes us forever. It causes us to treasure His words within our hearts until those words are what we crave to earnestly describe and make sense of our lives! This is what my heart was made for: love God and keep His words there!
- Posted with my iPad. The Apple Kool-Aide tastes fine.
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