JUL 16

Deuteronomy 26:16-19
Memorise Jeremiah 31:33
“they shall be my people, and I will be their God”

From the very beginning, God has always desired a personal relationship with His people. He is not a distant unloving God who does not care about His creation. No, He is a loving God, who wants to care for us, to love us and to guide us through life. He wants to be our God, and wants us to be His people. That is the main purpose behind the first commandment – God wants us to have Him as our personal God.

You see, when we allow other things in our lives to take the place of God, what happens is that the connection between us and God is broken, for we have allowed a third party into the relationship. In a sense, we commit spiritual adultery, and chase after all these other gods in our lives. Despite all that, He continues to wait patiently for us to turn back to him, and restore that relationship once again.

At the end of Deuteronomy 26, Moses was reminding the people of Israel of the covenant that they had made with the Lord, where they had promised to obey the commandments of God, and be His peculiar people. In this passage, what we have listed out are the requirements that we ought to fulfil, in order to have the Lord to be our God. What God wants from us is the simple heart of obedience, “to walk in his ways, and to keep his statutes, and his commandments, and his judgments, and to hearken unto his voice.” If these conditions are met, then God will receive us as His very own treasured possessions, and promises to bless us greatly.

Understand that such obedience is one that is done willingly, cheerfully and with a sincere heart. It is not slavish compliance to a law, like that of a slave to a master. It is instead a loving submission, of a child to a father, whereby a relationship built on love and care is present. That is the sort of relationship that God wants to have with us, and that is what He asks for in the first commandment – that we receive Him as our only God, and have nothing else in our life that would hinder that relationship from happening. It is a commandment that is definitely worth striving to keep, and is not hard at all if we truly love God and want Him to be our God.

Thought: God wants to have a relationship with me. What a privilege!
Prayer: O Lord, help me to obey You, to walk in Your ways, to hearken to Your voice, and in so doing to have a blessed and wonderful relationship with You!