SPIRITUAL SURVIVAL

Can I pray for you in any way?

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In Christ, Mark

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

So Moses wrote down this law and gave it to the priests, the sons of Levi, who carried the ark of the covenant of the Lord, and to all the elders of Israel. Then Moses commanded them: "At the end of every seven years, in the year for canceling debts, during the Feast of Tabernacles, when all Israel comes to appear before the Lord your God at the place He will choose, you shall read this law before them in their hearing. Assemble the people—men, women and children, and the aliens living in your towns — so they can listen and learn to fear the Lord your God and follow carefully all the words of this law. Their children, who do not know this law, must hear it and learn to fear the Lord your God as long as you live in the land you are crossing the Jordan to possess."

Deuteronomy 31:9-13

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

As we are getting set to reach the end of the Book of Deuteronomy, Moses is about to die, never having the opportunity to enter the Promised Land. We know he had spent much of his life serving as a faithful spokesperson for the Lord, faithfully and obediently sharing messages from Him with the Israelites. His work ensured that the people of God would know all of God’s laws, commands, and expectations. And although he knew his time was drawing to a close, Moses still wanted to make sure his brothers and sisters would have a record of what God had said.

To that end, the scriptures tell us that Moses wrote down the law and “gave it to the priests, the sons of Levi, who carried the ark of the covenant of the Lord, and to all the elders of Israel”, giving them the following instructions:

"At the end of every seven years, in the year for canceling debts, during the Feast of Tabernacles, when all Israel comes to appear before the Lord your God at the place He will choose, you shall read this law before them in their hearing.”

Here we see where the Lord would set an appointed time at which all “men, women, and children” as well as “aliens” were to be assembled so to listen to the reading of the law so they would “learn to fear the Lord…and follow carefully all the words of (His) law”. Keep in mind that God had issued stern warnings against disobedient living and He wanted His people to know that there would be serious consequences if they chose to turn away from Him into sin. We should note that there was special emphasis placed on teaching the Lord’s expectations to the children…the next generation of Israelites. Truly, God expected His laws and expectations to remain embedded in the minds of His people, present and future to include us today.

Indeed, believers today are to read God’s word and be reminded of His expectations as well. We need to keep in mind that we have many more words from God than Israel had, sixty-six books of them to be exact. The ancient Israelites only had the first five books of what we have as the Holy Bible today: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. They comprised what is widely known as the Torah (in Hebrew), the Pentateuch (in Greek), or the Books of the Law. And while the people of Israel were to review the words of God every seven years, the requirement for us is more stringent. For today, we simply need to read and study the Word of God every single day, allowing the Lord to continuously remind us of who He is and what He wants us to do in life. To reinforce this, consider these words from Jesus as He was tempted by Satan for the first time:

“The tempter came to him and said, "If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread." Jesus answered, "It is written: 'Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’" Matthew 4:3-4

To further illustrate what Jesus was getting at as He quoted from the Book of Deuteronomy (8:3), think about the physical act of eating and the need for it if one is to remain healthy. Ask yourself this question:

What would happen if you went consecutive days without eating anything?

I think you can agree that you would soon begin to become physically ill and if this went on for too long, you would eventually die from starvation. The bottom line is that we must eat to survive and this is a simple fact of life.

Now, let’s take this same discussion and apply it to our spiritual health, something as equally important as our physical side for if we live long enough, we learn that we can’t simply live on food alone.

Indeed, we all have a spiritual component that is equally important, if not more so, than the physical one. And if we hope to be healthy spiritually, then we have to be in the scriptures, from “every word that comes from the mouth of God”. We know this because God’s Word says it and His word is always perfectly true.

With this, some questions to consider:

How are you doing in your spiritual life? Have you been feeding yourself daily from the Word of God, the Word that Jesus said we need to survive?

The answer to these questions will determine whether you are spiritually healthy or sick and if it’s the latter, the remedy is easy. All you need to do is dedicate time every day to read from the Bible for when you do, spiritual nourishment happens.

In the end translation, don’t only give attention to your physical body at the expense of starving your very soul. My prayer is that these messages the Lord gives me to share daily are just one of the ways that keep you spiritually healthy. If so, drop a comment and testify about it.

Love and blessings to you, the reader, always.

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