HEART AND SOUL

In today’s Bible reading (Deuteronomy 26-29) God tells Moses to write down the blessings that come from following His law and the curses that will come to those who don’t. Repeating again and again the consequences of faithfulness and unfaithfulness, God pleads for His people to obey Him and warns them what will occur if they don’t.

The content of this section is clear but God repeats it several times in just these three chapters. In fact, starting in chapter 11 and going through chapter 30, God warns His people to follow His ways repeatedly. If we obey, we will receive His blessings. If we don’t, we will receive the curses of our unfaithfulness. God did not rely solely on repetition to get His point across, He also challenged His peoples’ motivation. God tells us that our actions do not follow our understanding of right and wrong. Instead, God tells us our actions follow our hearts and our soul when He says, “follow these decrees and laws; carefully observe them with all our heart and will all your soul.” (Deut. 26:16)

God demands my immediate obedience but that’s not all. He wants my heart and soul to be fully committed to Him, because without my heart and soul fully invested, it is just a matter of time until my obedience wains and blessings turn to curses. God doesn’t need me to follow His decrees, however, He knows it is in my best interest to do so and He shows how much He loves me by not only telling me about the immediate consequences of my actions, but He also shows me how I can keep following His path by cultivating a life-long pursuit of Him.

If your heart has grown cold towards God, pray that He will rekindle and restore you to a time of deep love for Him. Your actions will follow your heart and soul.