Wednesday, March 26th
Lisa Stutzman-Graves
“Now, O Israel, listen to the statutes and the judgments which I teach you to observe, that you may live, and go in and possess the land which the Lord God of your fathers is giving you. You shall not add to the word which I command you, nor take from it, that you may keep the commandments of the Lord your God which I command you.” Deuteronomy 4:1-2 NKJV
“Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill. For assuredly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle will by no means pass from the law till all is fulfilled. Whoever therefore breaks one of the least of these commandments, and teaches men so, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever does and teaches them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I say to you, that unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven.” Matthew 5:17-20 NKJV
How many of us have felt that nudge from God and yet maybe we obeyed it halfway or not at all? I know I have and how does it make us feel when we obey completely? Does it bring us back to school days when we worked so hard for a certain grade or project? I can remember in 4th grade we had a multiplication contest…who could the learn their multiplication tables the fastest won a whole bag of M&M’s plus the chance to grade all those papers. Guess who won, yours truly. Another time when I played softball, I was told there were no left-handed catchers. Well, I worked really hard and guess what I was? A left-handed catcher who guarded that plate like a mother hen. When we tried to take short cuts with God, how did that make us feel….sheepish, guilty, remorse or more? I remember when I was a teenager my parents would give you a long leash, but when you messed up, they would tighten that leash so fast and tight you would think you never had any privileges. They did this because they loved me and I know God loves us even more. When I get into these latter feelings of guilt and remorse I have to ask myself, does God want me to feel like this? Absolutely not. Our God is a God of excellence and in my experience he is all too ready to step in when we have tried everything we know to do. But when short cuts are involved, maybe not so. Blind ignoring, I’m certain God is not happy with that at all. Just like my parents were so tough when I was a teenager, sometimes God has to be this way with us, for our betterment. God wants us to share our praiseworthy moments to next generations to give them hope and inspiration during the really tough times in life.
Lord help to hear and obey the gentle nudges of your Holy Spirit and to know you are giving us these nudges for our good and future generations.
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