Choose Life
I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse. Therefore choose life, that you and your offspring may live… Deuteronomy 30:19, ESV
Moses gave instructions to the Israelites to keep the covenant of the Lord. God told the people of Israel that He called heaven and earth to witness the covenant. Then God gave them a choice: choose blessings or curses, life or death, but the choice is theirs. God then told to choose life. What does it mean to choose life?
The Bible says that choosing life is loving the Lord your God, obeying His voice, and holding fast to Him. I found it interesting the order in which God gave the instructions for choosing life. He started with loving the Lord, which brought to my attention that there are those who can obey God’s voice without loving Him! We obey the law of our nation, but we may not love the politicians who make the law. The first thing God was looking for was their heart posture. If our heart posture is right, then it will draw us into obeying God’s voice and that moves us near to Him.
While writing this message this thought came to me: we have the Holy Spirit to help us walk in love and follow God’s commands, but they did not. I asked God how could they have a heart after Him without the Holy Spirit, and He reminded me that love comes with spending time with a person. The more time I spent dating my husband before we got married, the more he showed me his character, his heart posture, and what he was about. That eventually led to the heart of love I had for him which brought us to marriage. It is the same with God - He had already shown Israel His love for them. He had brought them out of Egypt, He had slaughtered their enemies, and provide food, clothing, and shelter for them. God had already demonstrated His love before He presented this covenant to them.
I love that God never changes. He is the same! He has done the same thing for us that He did for the Israelites. Before He presented us with the choice to choose life, He loved us by sending His only son Jesus Christ to pay the price for all our sin. He slaughtered the enemy who kept us from receiving eternal life and provided food, shelter, and clothing for us. As we follow the instructions of love from 1 Corinthians 13, our heart posture begins to change. The scripture tells us that love endures long and is patient and kind. Love protects, trusts, hopes, preserves, and never fails. One thing I noticed when I was reading this scripture is that love is work! To choose life is to spend time with God in His word and doing the work of love. God worked to demonstrate His love and He requires no less from us. Amen.
Affirmations: Matthew 10:20; Luke 24:32; Ephesians 6:19, Isaiah 55:11
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