Love and Obey

Deuteronomy 11:18-21 (NLT) "So commit yourselves wholeheartedly 
to these words of mine. Tie them to your hands and wear them on 
your forehead as reminders. 19 Teach them to your children. Talk 
about them when you are at home and when you are on the road, when you 
are going to bed and when you are getting up. 20 Write them on the 
doorposts of your house and on your gates, 21 so that as long as the sky 
remains above the earth, you and your children may flourish in the land 
the Lord swore to give your ancestors."  
 
Faithfully Obey. Note how intimately this chapter links 
remembering and responding. Again and again Moses reminded his listeners of 
what God had said and done. On this basis he called on Israel to 
"love the Lord your God and keep His requirements" (v. 1), to "observe 
therefore all the commands" (v. 8), to "faithfully obey the commands" (v. 
13), to "be careful" to worship God only (v. 16), and to "carefully 
observe all these commands I am giving you to follow--to love the Lord 
your God, to walk in all His ways and to hold fast to Him" (v. 22). 
Yet Moses did more than appeal to the past to show the value of 
obedience. He looked ahead as well, and linked the divine promise of future 
blessing to loving and serving God. In remembering God and how He had 
dealt with His people Moses was "setting before you today a blessing 
and a curse--the blessing if you obey the commands of the Lord your 
God... the curse if you disobey." What God has done, He will do. For 
God is faithful and consistent. [The 365-Day Devotional Commentary] 
 
God asks that His people obey Him because their obedience is 
their strength and life (vv. 8-9). They could not prosper in the land 
without God's constant care and blessing (Matt. 8:33). The Word in the 
heart will control the hand, the eyes and the tongue and will protect 
and direct the household (vv. 18-19).  His "I will" is all the 
promise we need! If we choose to obey, God will bless, even though we 
may experience trials and burdens. If we choose to disobey, God will 
still keep His promise and chasten us. If we love Him (vv. 1, 13, 22), 
we will obey Him, and in that obedience is life.