DECLARATION DAY

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In Christ, Mark

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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

“The Lord your God commands you this day to follow these decrees and laws; carefully observe them with all your heart and with all your soul. You have declared this day that the Lord is your God and that you will walk in His ways, that you will keep His decrees, commands, and laws, and that you will obey Him. And the Lord has declared this day that you are His people, His treasured possession as He promised, and that you are to keep all His commands. He has declared that He will set you in praise, fame, and honor high above all the nations He has made and that you will be a people holy to the Lord your God, as He promised.

Deuteronomy 26:16-19

This ends our reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

Before he died and as the Israelites were about to enter the Promised Land, Moses had passed on many commands and expectations to them from God. This was to ensure that God’s chosen people would live as He wanted in the land that was flowing with milk and honey, the land of Canaan that He was giving them. We find this sealed within our passage today as Moses says the following:

“The Lord your God commands you this day to follow these decrees and laws; carefully observe them with all your heart and with all your soul.”

Did you catch those key words?

With all your heart and with all your soul.

The people of God were to follow His commands so to fulfill all His expectations with every fiber of their being, fully committed in their obedience to Him and Him alone.

To do this requires intentional dedication and devotion…for when one has surrendered all their heart and soul to the Lord, they have essentially surrendered their will for His. They have moved over to the passenger side and allowed God to take the wheel, allowing Him to drive them through life to the places where He wants them to be so to do what He wants them to do.

As we see in our passage today, the people of Israel proclaim that they’re ready to make this kind of sacrifice. For we read where they have a declaration day…a day when they vowed “that the Lord (was their) God…that (they would) walk in his ways…that (they would) keep his decrees, commands and laws…and that (they would) obey him.” In other words, they vowed to keep their hearts and souls grounded in the Lord.

We also see how God made it His declaration day as well, vowing that the Israelites were “His people, His treasured possession”. He also promised to “set (Israel) in praise, fame, and honor high above all the nations…and that (they would) be a people holy” to Him.

Yes, all seemed to be well as the Israelites were ready to cross the Jordan River and enter Canaan…and it was. But don’t think for a moment that it will stay that way for we will see how God’s people will stop following Him with their heart and soul, forgetting their special declaration day and losing the Lord’s favor as a result.

So how about us today?

In most cases, we have had our own respective declaration days before our Lord, no more evident as when we go through the sacrament of baptism. There, we affirm that we are dying to our former selves before Christ to become a new creation in and through Him (2 Corinthians 5:17).

If we have done this, then the following questions come into play:

How we fulfilled the commitment we made, surrendering our hearts and souls to Christ so to become like Him in every way with every ounce of our being?

Or have we gone back to our prior sinful ways, allowing Satan and sin to steal away what we vowed to give God?

Friends, if we have lost our bearing...if we have wandered off of the narrow path of righteousness that God wants us to walk, forsaking His way for the ways of the world, then it’s time for us to get back on track. It’s time for us to recommit…to repent and return to the ways of the Lord.

In other words, it’s time for a new declaration day…a renewal of our commitment to the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit…not just with a part of us but with every bit of our hearts and souls for nothing short of that will do.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

PS: Feel free to leave a comment and please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it. Send any prayer requests to TheChristianWalkPrayers@gmail.com.