Tuesday, May 28, 2013

Pictures on the Wall

This morning as I read my daily devotional, I was struck by the words that jumped at me. Words I have read a dozen times, that never seemed to have much effect on me.  Words I had heard at church and even read to children during Sunday School. But today those words were different. Today, God used those words to speak directly to my heart.  As I read the Scriptures I was struck by what my mind was thinking as if I was having a conversation with myself about what I was thinking...not making sense? Yeah, at first it didn't make sense to me either.  It was as if I were looking directly at myself while I spoke the words aloud.  In Deuteronomy, chapter six it is written that we are to write the Word of God "on the doorposts of your house and on your gates." Well, sure that sounds easy enough. How many times have I walked through a store here in town and saw a beautiful picture with some heartwarming scripture and thought to myself, "Yeah that would look cute in the family room." But is that really what we are to do?  Is the picture on the wall what I need? Is it going to teach my children to know Jesus? Will it remind me to read my Bible? Does my heart fill to overflowing by reading the words on the wall? Sure, it is a great picture and the words are even greater, but does that fulfill those words in Deuteronomy? Did I do as I was commanded by buying a picture and putting it on the wall?

When I began to pull apart this small portion of Scripture I was deeply convicted by what I read.  Deuteronomy 6:4-12 says,

Hear, O Israel! The LORD is our God, the LORD is one!5“You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.6“These words, which I am commanding you today, shall be on your heart.7“You shall teach them diligently to your sons and shall talk of them when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way and when you lie down and when you rise up.8“You shall bind them as a sign on your hand and they shall be as frontals on your forehead.9“You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.
    10“Then it shall come about when the LORD your God brings you into the land which He swore to your fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, to give you, great and splendid cities which you did not build,11and houses full of all good things which you did not fill, and hewn cisterns which you did not dig, vineyards and olive trees which you did not plant, and you eat and are satisfied,12then watch yourself, that you do not forget the LORD who brought you from the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.

Am I listening? I know that the Lord is God. I know the commandment to love the Lord my God with all my heart, soul and might. I know that those words are to be on my heart. But do I?  Do I teach them to my children? Am I diligent in what I am teaching them? When we are sitting around the house in the evening and there is conversation, is it about Jesus? When we are driving through town on our way to our next activity, are we talking about Jesus?  I read a devotion with my son at night and sometimes we talk about it, but many times I walk away wondering if it is just something we do. I pray God is using it in his young life, but am I diligent?

Take a moment and think about what the scriptures are that you have in your home.  Do you know them? Do you obey them? As I went through the course of my day, I thought back to that Scripture many times and thought about the seriousness of what God had spoken to my heart.  What am I doing to bind those words to my heart? God has promised great and splendid cities. But He commanded me to LOVE Him. First, last, most, only!  Oh, how quickly the Israelites forgot. We are quick to think that they were dumb to forget something so important.  But, can you recite the Scripture in your family room? Can you recall the last time you talked to the Lord about the goings on in your day?

What are the pictures on the wall of your heart? Do they reflect the same pictures as the pictures on the wall in your family room?