DaySpring Daily Word of Inspiration: Deuteronomy 30:16 – For I command you today to love the Lord your God, to walk in obedience to him, and to keep his commands, decrees and laws; then you will live and increase, and the Lord your God will bless you in the land you are entering to possess.
Today we end the week on an application note. Yesterday we got an opportunity to look back over our lives and give God the just due he deserves in thanks and appreciation for his steady hand over our lives. He has protected us. He has guided us. He has provided for us. He has even given us what we don’t deserve at all – His love, mercy, grace and sacrificial Lamb, Jesus Christ.
With all that God has done for you and I, how do you repay him? How do you show your appreciation and gratitude to him for not treating you as your sins and constant disobedience deserve? He doesn’t need anything that we have or we could make; because he is the one who allowed us to make it – essentially he can make it. There is one thing however that no person or spirit can be forced to do or give, which God will take willingly; our love!
Loving our God is a choice; just as loving your significant other is a choice. You can do it or not. Doing it should produce a relationship of trust, caring, peace, humility and hope. When we don’t choose to love, we stir up strife, resentment, selfishness and hurt to others. The same can be said about our relationship with God. When we love God with our all, it is easy to trust him with our lives, we keep peace of mind by following his teachings and living repented lives, we are made us wise and He cares for our every need because our love is genuine. On the other hand, when we choose not to love God, we experience the hurts and trials of life without remorse. Our days are filled with stress and we’re never happy – always trying to achieve more because we aren’t full and nothing ever quenches our thirst.
If you are grateful and you are one of the hundreds of people who took up the call from yesterday to shout out offerings of thanks to our Father God, it is time for the follow up! We can’t just send thanks to God in lip service and think that our work is done. The other side of that coin is our actual work. We are thankful, right – so how does it make us act? Do we just say thanks and we love you God but never show it? How would your husband or wife or boyfriend or girlfriend feel if you ONLY said that you were thankful for them or loved them? I think it’s safe to say that wouldn’t go over so well. In the same way, we need to show God our love and thanks in our obedience to what he’s said, faithfulness to his will being done and sacrifice of what we envision to take on what He envisions for us all.
Today is the day we match our words with actions. If your love is genuine, the blessings of God will be evident in your life. We want that to be your reality. As we show our thanks, now we show our love and obedience to the one who deserves it all. May God be glorified in and through your life today and for ever more. In Jesus’ name, AMEN!