In Deuteronomy 30:10(NLT), Moses told the people of God living in Old Testament times, “The LORD your God will delight in you if you obey his voice and keep the commands and decrees written in this Book of Instruction, and if you turn to the LORD your God with all your heart and soul.” God’s plea for them to get on board with His plan is still relevant for those of us living today. We have His Spirit abiding within, they didn’t. With this power God’s given us comes a greater responsibility. It isn’t enough to simply turn to God, because even those that don’t know Him or care to know Him will turn to Him when they are facing extreme trouble or despair. They turn to receive His mercy and grace, and when the trouble is over, they return to their old ways. God’s instruction to His people was to turn to Him with all their heart and soul. This is a turning that signals total and complete surrender to God through Christ. It means that we are abandoning everything else and depending on God with everything that we are. This is what our Heavenly Father wants from us.
We are often surprised when we can’t make something work, or when we put our all into a thing, and it turns out to be far from what we expected. In reality, every disappointment, every sadness and despair, and every heartache and emotional pain asks us to reroute our hearts, put God first, and begin to seek Him in a way we hadn’t before. God is faithful, and He can be trusted with our hearts; they belong to Him anyway.
In the Old Testament, as King David prepared to pass from this life and enter the next, he had a talk with his son, Solomon, who was going to take over David’s throne. David said to him in 1Kings2:2-4(NLT), “I am going where everyone on earth must someday go. Take courage and be a man. Observe the requirements of the LORD your God, and follow all his ways. Keep the decrees, commands, regulations, and laws written in the Law of Moses so that you will be successful in all you do and wherever you go. If you do this, then the LORD will keep the promise he made to me. He told me, ‘If your descendants live as they should and follow me faithfully with all their heart and soul, one of them will always sit on the throne of Israel.’”
Any loving father will impart the kind of knowledge to their children that they believe is beneficial. David knew a little something about success, because the Lord had blessed him bountifully and had caused him to be victorious and overcome enemies many times. David told Solomon, his son, how to succeed! In essence, he told him to keep God’s Word and follow it, because God is faithful and will honor the promises He has made to His people.
It is also important to understand that God’s promises had a condition. This is the part that many of us skip over. A relationship is not a relationship without the participation of the other party. There’s no such thing as a one-sided relationship. Both parties must participate, and it is so important to Heavenly Father that we understand this. Ephesians 2:10 declares that God created us as His masterpieces. We are His finest work, and He created us spiritually in Christ so we can do the good things He planned for us way before we entered our mother’s wombs. Jesus Christ is our Big Brother. Romans 8:29 says that God knew us and handpicked us out from among the world to be His very own. God chose us to be replicas of Jesus Christ, so that Jesus Christ would be the firstborn of many brothers and sisters.
This shows us that God wanted a family and we’re it! He planned for us, He created everything for our well-being, and He continually calls out to us. He’s woven reminders throughout our everyday existences. They are alarms to wake us up so that we remember who we are; so that we will not go back to our old ways but remain diligent to pattern ourselves after Christ. God has commanded us not to follow the world and become indoctrinated in their cultures and traditions, because this violates the relationship that He wants with us. He wants us to have success and walking in His Word is what makes successful living possible.
This relationship is a two-way street, and God set the parameters. John 3:16(NKJV) tells us, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” God gave first, and boy did He give, big time!!! He gave His most precious treasure, which is the life of His only begotten Son. This is the central parameter that Heavenly Father has set. He gives to us in exceedingly abundance, and we respond to His giving by trusting Him and following what He says. Following God’s Word equates to responding to Him in faith. Trusting God’s Word equals responding to Him in gratitude, obedience, honor, and love. When we don’t respond to Him this way, we are choosing to look away and take our eyes off Him. That’s a very dangerous thing to do.
God doesn’t entertain a half surrender, and many of us find this out the hard way, when we face the most challenging issues of life. We try to have faith, but still want to entertain fear, trying to go back and forth between the two. As believers in the Lord Jesus Christ, faith is our foundation; without it we can’t please God. Having faith in His Word is the very least we can do for all He has done for us. The choice to have faith in Him confronts us not just in challenging times, but from the very moment we open our eyes each morning. We are bombarded with choices to surrender to God. Surrendering our day to His divine leadership and guidance should be our continual prayer. Many of us think that God will go where He hasn’t been invited, or that He will intervene in areas of our lives that we haven’t surrendered to His Word and guidance. Well, Jesus Christ said in Revelation 3:20(NKJV), “Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me.” God is beyond gentle. He’s happy, brilliant, and loving. He waits on us to invite Him in. When we do, He will commune with us through the Spirit of Christ.
God is faithful to keep His promises. Moses told God’s people in Deuteronomy 7:9(NLT) “Understand, therefore, that the Lord your God is indeed God. He is the faithful God who keeps his covenant for a thousand generations and lavishes his unfailing love on those who love him and obey his commands.” Even if we are not faithful to God, He is faithful to always keep His Word. His truth goes forth with perfection, but we will deny ourselves the proof and witness of seeing the fruit of His promises in our lives if we refuse to trust His Word. Let’s love Him greater than that. Let’s honor Him with our faith, and trust that when we surrender to Him totally and completely, we’ve let go and let God. We’ve proven that we trust in the reality that it’s impossible for Him to fail. He is faithful to bring His promises to pass in our lives, and it pleases Him when we honor Him for being the faithful, loving, and powerful God that He is. ●
Scripture taken from the New King James Version. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations marked (NLT) are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved.