Keep The Commandments!

Deuteronomy 8:6
Therefore thou shalt keep the commandments of the Lord thy God, to walk in his ways, and to fear him.

I am amazed! Since I started to blog my morning devotion time, scripture has opened up to me. I am in awe how a simple verse has so much meat within it! The Lord shows me that He desires for me to get what He is saying to me by breaking down His words into small digestible bites. This morning we will outline this as follows:

Thou shalt keep the commandments of the Lord thy God,

If you were to ask the average man on the street what are the commandments of the Lord, most would answer "The 10 commandments"! This answer would only be partially correct. Yes my friend there are a set of 10 commandments, but that is just the tip of the iceberg. God does not want us to blindly follow a set of measurable rules that we post on a wall or display at the court house. God is more concerned about our relationship between us.

After 31 years of marriage, I have come to realize that my relationship to and with my wife is much more than a set of written rules. Because of our close relationship, we anticipate subtle things and adjust our actions to accommodate. We do not need to speak about our "rules", we communicate our desires and ideas, our expectations and what makes us happy or sad, concerned or satisfied. I believe that we should keep the "Rules" of God, and we need to develop such a close relationship with God we instinctively know and keep the relationship at tip top shape.

To walk in his ways,

I have a theme song, I am always singing it, the song is my release valve when things are not going my way. It goes something like this; "I'm in a hurry to get there fast!" I also justify my erratic driving by using this explanation: "I never speed, I just pass those who do!"

Walking takes time, you can not get there fast, you can not speed through it. Christians need to realize that we are not in a race, we are in a relationship. We (I) need to invest the time needed to build this relationship. I heard it said many times that we must walk before we can run, I think God wants us to just slow down and walk in His ways!

And to fear him.

What does the word "fear" mean? My Bible refers me to Psalms 19:9 The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring for ever:... ** the notes for this verse reads The "fear of the Lord", a phrase of the O.T. piety, meaning reverential trust, with hatred of evil.**

We are to develop our relationship to the point we exhibit "fear" A long time ago a friend speaking of his father told me he did not want to be the next person to hurt his father. I have tried to adopt this in a similar fashion. I do not want to be the next person to hurt my Heavenly Father! In my example of my relationship with my wife, I would not want my actions to hurt the relationship I have with her. So, I do not want my actions to hurt God.

I want to "Keep The Commandments"! Do you?