SCRIPTURE: Deuteronomy 11
OBSERVATION/APPLICATION:
“Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.” [Matthew 7:13-14]
Apparently it’s a lot easier to go away from God than it is to move toward Him.
The wide and broad path is the easy one, while the small and narrow path is hard to find and to follow.
And yet when you consider the final outcome, why would anyone choose the wide and broad path?
God through Moses reminds the people that He has guided them along the small and narrow path, through the wilderness, and that if they stick with Him, they will find life – a good life – at the end of the road.
Yet again and again He repeats this message, accompanied with warnings.
Apparently, God knows the power of distraction and destruction.
God knows, through experience, how quickly people forget and turn back to the wide and broad path.
Deuteronomy 11 rehearses what God has done for them, what He will do for them, and what asks of them.
He clearly articulates the blessings that follow obedience, and the curses that follow disobedience.
He even makes Mount Gerizim and Mouth Ebal visible symbols of the two options.
We need to be honest, we are prone to wander, we are inclined to go our own way, do our own thing.
We find it easier and more delightful to drift on the Niagara River (even though it ends at the Falls) than to resist the current and go the other way, God’s way.
It takes effort, discipline, determination, perseverance, to follow the Lord.
It is not, and will never be, an easy path.
Either we choose the hard path of following Jesus, which involves, self-denial, cross-carrying, persecution, spiritual warfare, temptation… or we choose the easy path.
Easy, but deadly.
It leads to disappointment, defeat, and ultimately destruction.
Today I have a choice.
Will I do the hard work of resisting temptation, loving others more than myself, taking the role of a servant, thinking about God and His will throughout the day, setting aside specific time with Him through prayer and bible-reading.
Or will I do what comes naturally, easily – whatever I want, whatever I feel like, whatever feels good and right to me.
It is a choice, a choice with consequences.
Indecision is still a decision, drifting in the Niagara River is deciding.
PRAYER:
Lord, I choose today to love and obey and serve You, with all of my heart. Today, I choose You, life and blessing.
The first two verses of this passage says it all:
‘Love the Lord your God and keep his requirements, his decrees, his laws and his commands always. 2 Remember today that your children were not the ones who saw and experienced the discipline of the Lord your God his majesty, his mighty hand, his outstretched arm;’
Do this and live – really live. There is but one way – Love God. Do His will. Loving is doing.
Loving is also knowing.
The older generation experienced the mighty acts of God as they left Egypt land. The new generation did not experience the miraculous signs of the Lord. The one generation must tell the next generation the mighty acts of God and the care He has given His people.
Once again the people are reminded to do. The people had this reminder before. God knows His people how they tend to walk. All too often they insist upon their own way and are blinded in their seeing. When life is good, the people forget that it is a blessing of the Lord and they forget. All too often the people insist upon their own way rather than His way.
I too need to be reminded to walk in His way – to listen to His Word and to do His Word also today. I am walking in His SonShine only when I trust and obey as He leads and guides me along the Way.
Loving Him = Knowing Him = Serving Him. To love God means to do His will.
What a fellowship, what a joy divine,
Leaning on the everlasting arms;
What a blessedness, what a peace is mine,
Leaning on the everlasting arms.
Refrain
Leaning, leaning, safe and secure from all alarms;
Leaning, leaning, leaning on the everlasting arms.
O how sweet to walk in this pilgrim way,
Leaning on the everlasting arms;
O how bright the path grows from day to day,
Leaning on the everlasting arms.