I have been thinking about the statement I penned in my first bible. Something I wrote 36 years ago, “Every promise of God within this book I intend to believe; every command of God within this book, I purpose to keep.” I wonder if it was foolish to say that. How often do I fail to do that? To think that I could ever do that, all the promises, all the commands. It was brash, I was young and naive. Or maybe it wasn’t foolish. To stand up and declare it, in the idealism of my youth, and try to do it, despite the failures. I don’t know, I guess that is what I am still doing today. I am trying to believe the promises, and I am trying to keep His commands, very imperfectly, but I am still trying.
There are promises of blessings and there are requirements to get them. One side of the equation is something I desperately want, the blessings, but whether it’s happening, or not happening, is out of my control. The other side of the equation is different, it is not something I desperately want, but it falls under my domain. I have the wherewithal to do it.
I guess I will start with the commandment that came to mind as I was reading my bible. It was a familiar passage. Here is what I was reading,
Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one! “You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength. And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.”
Deuteronomy 6.4-9
As I read through this familiar passage, one phrase stuck in my brain, I mean it really stuck out, “with all your strength”.
So why this phrase? I suspect it has to do with something I have been struggling with. Fatigue. I have little strength. My life used to revolve around things that took strength. Man, not anymore. And I have been struggling with what I can do with little strength. For example, I sit on a board for a camp, and I need to decide if I can continue on. I guess the camp needs to decide that as well. Usually, I can make it to board meetings, but beyond that, I don’t know if I have anything to offer. And I am thinking about that for everything, work, hobbies, chores, writing, reading, everything. Everything I thought I might want to do, post-stroke, went out of bounds because of fatigue.
Everything I can do today doesn’t measure up to any standard. Standards of productivity, strength, endurance, even intelligence (I realize my mind still works pretty well, but at the same time, I couldn’t think of the word intelligence in the last sentence) in all cases, I cannot measure up, I cannot make the grade. I get it, no one expects me to measure up, I get a pass. I guess I’m glad about that, but I hate it as well. The standards no longer apply.
But there it was, right there, the standard. And it does apply.
The standard I need to attain. Love the Lord your God with all my strength. There is no minimum number to achieve, there is no prize for doing better than average, it takes everything that I have, but no more. It is the standard I need to live by.
This standard is the foundation of everything. It is how we relate to God; it is the foundation of the bible; it is how the world will end when Jesus returns. It isn’t just a rule that we need to obey, it is everything.
I am amazed how often it is proclaimed in the book of Deuteronomy, over and over again God proclaims the standard and also the blessings and curses which will follow. Love the Lord your God and walk in his ways, love the Lord your God and obey his commandments, love the Lord your God and listen to his voice, and Deuteronomy ends with a beautiful call to choose life, to love God and follow his ways, to choose the blessings over the curses.
See I set before you today life and prosperity, death and destruction. For I command you today to love the Lord your God, to walk in his ways, 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.
Deuteronomy 30.15-16
That was the commandment. So here is a promise, a promise of blessings.
In the book of Deuteronomy, God promises blessings. They were really broad, things like, you will be blessed in the city and blessed in the country. The fruit of your womb, your crops, your livestock, will be blessed. And it goes on for 14 verses. Ending with this, the Lord will make you the head, not the tail, you will always be at the top, never at the bottom. Blessings galore. It can be found in Deuteronomy 28 if you are interested. I like blessings
But there is another promise, a more specific promise. Somehow it just showed up in my mind as I was thinking about this. So, I looked it up, as I started to read it, it was like God was whispering in my ear. It’s about strength.
Do you not know? Have you not heard? The everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth does not become weary or tired. His understanding is inscrutable. He gives strength to the weary, and to him who lacks might He increases power. Though youths grow weary and tired, and vigorous young men stumble badly, yet those who wait for the Lord will gain new strength; they will mount up with wings like eagles, they will run and not get tired, they will walk and not become weary. Isaiah 40. 28-31
Those who wait for the Lord will gain new strength. What a promise for someone like me.
In my new bible I am writing this declaration again. Not from the idealism of youth, but through the ups and downs of life declaring again, “Every promise of God within this book, I intend to believe; every command of God within this book, I purpose to keep.”
Your emails are a delight to me whenever I read them. You have much strength in your wisdom. Many strong vibrant jogging, mountain climbing, house building, lawn mowing people cannot encourage me more than the strength you have in wisdom. I am 64. There are tons of things and places I would like to go but I just can’t. I have a bum ankle. Just walking around the grocery store wears me out. I get discouraged, depressed and mad about it. Doesn’t matter….my ankle is still a bum ankle. But what I can do is talk on the phone with someone who needs a friend. I can go out to lunch with someone who is struggling with life. I can tell someone that I love them when they are feeling so unloved. And I can tell others about God. I don’t have to walk a great distance to do all that. I do what I can, when I can and hope it is enough. Like you on the board of the camp. They need your wisdom. You have been around that camp all your life. You have given hours of your time to that camp. So what if you can just sit on the board. Its more than I can do for them. And you bring to them a man of great faith and faith can move mountains. Your gentle spirit has always been a blessing to me. Maybe you are not Karl the conqueror. But you are Karl the strong Christian, prayer warrior, husband, father, grandfather, friend, helper, brother, camp board helper, spreader of Gods word, great writer, stain glass window maker, encourager, neighbor, bible reader, and a bunch more stuff. Man!~ No wonder your tired!! In our Christian walk the most important thing is to tell others about Jesus and you , my friend, have done that your whole life and you are still doing it. Maybe God wants you tired. Maybe. So you can see and do the things you may have missed when you were energized and on the go all the time. Maybe. I will agree with you that it gets discouraging and at times hopeless. I battle that every day. I question God continually and sometimes I get no answers. And sometimes I get angry. My life right now is nothing that I thought it would be nor did I want it to be. But it is what it is. So you do what you can do and I will do what I can do and lets see how we can impact the world from where we are.
God looks at Jesus and sees those who believe through Him. He has provided for our weakness. Our imperfect attempts he cherishes because of His Son. Praise!
Aunt Thelma