What we already know

TODAY'S SPECIAL: Deuteronomy 30:1-20

TO CHEW ON: "But the word is very near you in your mouth and in your heart, that you may do it." Deuteronomy 30:14

There is within us humans a thirst for novelty. We get bored with the old ways of handling life and want to try something new—a new diet, a new way of organizing life, a new way of staying fit. There's nothing wrong with this thirst for newness unless it threatens to draw us away from the true and tested. Perhaps this tendency accounted for Israel's habit of straying from God in trying out new religions.

Here, in one of his final addresses to Israel before they enter Canaan, Moses warns the people against making such novel but idolatrous choices.  The commands I'm giving you today, he says to Israel (my paraphrase), are not hard to understand, not something you need to search for, not a secret of heaven (Deuteronomy 30:11-13). Rather, they are "… very near you, in your mouth, and in your mind and in your heart" - Deuteronomy 30:14 AMP.

Those of us who have been Christ-followers for a long time do well to take to heart Moses' warning to the Israelites  for ourselves. If we, over a lifetime of being disciples, have read God's word, hidden it in our hearts by memorizing it and meditating on it, and tried to live by it, God's instructions are also near us. We don't need to search out the latest book, subscribe to the hottest new speaker's podcasts, or keep up with the theological blogs to discover how to live.

Let's follow Moses' advice to Israel here, and do/obey/live according to what we already know.

PRAYER: Dear God, it's so easy to look for shortcuts or jump on the bandwagon of the latest spiritual craze. Help me to trust and obey Your familiar word. Amen.
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Unless otherwise noted all Scripture quotations are taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations marked AMP are taken from the Amplified® Bible, Copyright © 1954, 1958, 1962, 1964, 1965, 1987 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission." (www.Lockman.org)