Keep His Commandments, Or No?

Deuteronomy 8:2
And thou shalt remember all the way which the Lord thy God led thee these forty years in the wilderness, to humble thee, and to prove thee, to know what was in thine heart, whether thou wouldest keep his commandments, or no.

Last night at Church, during our Faith Promise Missions Bump Up. Dr. Pat Creed preached out of this text. God used this in my heart in a new way. I will share from my heart over the next few days (Lord willing!)

I find these verses very revealing! As a Christian, I have not given much thought about how everything in our life is set up and directed in every detail by God. In this passage warnings and exhortations are presented for our education. They form a solid foundation for us. We need to be obedient in this matter.

And thou shalt remember all the way which the Lord thy God led thee these forty years in the wilderness,

We need to be diligent when we read the Word of God. It is easy to be in a hurry and miss the subtleties of particular words. We get in a hurry and add simple changes and a single "s" makes a word plural, that in itself limits the real meaning or impact of the exact phrase. I was shocked to realize that for as long as I can remember I was reading this part of the verse like this: "all the ways" By reading the word "way" as "ways', I changed the impact to many incidents in my life instead of the meaning of totality of everything in my life.

We are called to remember the complete, the totality, every aspect of our life. We need to be reminded that God has and is still directing the way which God has ordained for us to go. Even when God allows us to experience a time (or in this case 40 years) in a desert place. The impact of this command to remember is directing us to the time we spend in the place that God led us to get us to the place we could be useful. Where has God led you to be useful in His service?

To humble thee, and to prove thee, to know what was in thine heart, whether thou wouldest keep his commandments, or no.

God knows everything! He knows how we are going to respond! But God sets us up in situations that helps us to see our self as He sees us. I call it a self revelation! I am not always what I think I am! God clips my wings to make me realize just what I am. Human nature is always in the process of blowing itself up. Our ego's are over inflated, and are dangerous to the cause of Christ. We get a bit "spiritual" and think we are so much better than anyone else, and it shows when we deal with the lost. We need to be humbled to put us on the right track.

God also allows us to be put to the test. He needs us to be tested to see the proof of His love in our life. We need to see that in the full picture of things in God's economy we fall short of the mark God desires of us. Without His blessings we can not accomplish much.

From time to time I need to be shown what is in the recesses of my own heart. As a wayward human that is saved by Grace, I need to rid myself of the things that displease God. I need my ears cleaned out to hear the voice of God clearly. My heart gets plugged up with the things of this world and I need God to kick out the things that slow me down. We all need to see if we will act the way God desires us when thigs get tough!

We have a choice! Will we "Keep His Commandments, Or No?"