Joel M Bradshaw

16“This day the LORD your God commands you to do these statutes and rules. You shall therefore be careful to do them with all your heart and with all your soul. 17You have declared today that the LORD is your God, and that you will walk in his ways, and keep his statutes and his commandments and his rules, and will obey his voice.–Deuteronomy 26

Here is another great covenant moment between Yahweh and Israel, as mediated by Moses. Let’s quickly run down the list…

1. BE CAREFUL. What do you take great care to do? What is of most importance to you? What consumes your planning and your stresses? Are they by and large more the things centered around you or things centered around God?
2. DECLARE. We live in a world today where what you stand for and who you stand with matters. We see it in social media or even in yard signs. There’s a concern for some to not be labeled as ‘one of them.’ You may even keep your allegiances private for whatever reason. Declaring is a public matter.
3. WALKING, KEEPING, OBEYING. These are your attitudes and your actions that should illustrate that you are being careful and properly declaring your allegiance. The way you live your life is walking. Your priorities are revealed in your keeping. You either are obeying God or you are not.

What it comes down to is your heart and soul. Think of your heart as your inner person. The part of you that makes decisions, that holds convictions, that is motivated to do things. If the outside you is different from the inside you, then you are either a hypocrite or a person in great conflict.

With the soul, think even deeper. The soul is the very reason you exist. Genesis 2 pictures God as breathing that life into Adam. Adam stopped being a formed lump and started being a living being because of the direct activity of God. That’s your soul, the very reason you are alive.

Does the inner you keep, walk, and obey? You do what you do because you want what you want. Do you really want to honor God with all that is inside you?

Your very soul is also involved. Your reason for existence is now connected with being careful and declaring. To love God with all your soul is a meaning of life kind of thing. It is central to your very being. These words in Deuteronomy weren’t written to us, but were preserved for us. They give us great matters to ponder with our minds and to respond with our hearts and our souls.–JMB