Day 3

Yesterday we considered that Jesus' teaching, or his “yoke,” was light and not a heavy burden. I don't know about you but I used to think that any teaching or commandment was heavy. But the Living God's commands are different than your mom telling you to clean up your room or not to run by the pool. His commands are more like universal laws or principles, like gravity or eating. When you and I ignore gravity or eating, it has really bad consequences because we fall and get hurt or we starve. And so in the interest of keeping my life, I obey those Universal Laws and I really don't think of them as a burden. When we choose to follow the Living God's way, or his teaching and commands, we are choosing life and freedom, not chains and burdens. Today's Scriptures will deal with this more. Let's dive in...

Start off by thanking the Living God for providing us a way to live and to thrive under his plan. Ask that he would continue to teach you through his Word.

Deuteronomy 30:11-20

Now what I am commanding you today is not too difficult for you or beyond your reach. It is not up in heaven, so that you have to ask, 'Who will ascend into heaven to get it and proclaim it to us so we may obey it?' Nor is it beyond the sea, so that you have to ask, 'Who will cross the sea to get it and proclaim it to us so we may obey it?' No, the word is very near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart so you may obey it. See, I set before you today life and prosperity, death and destruction. For I command you today to love the LORD your god, to walk in his ways, and to keep his commands, decrees and laws; then you will live and increase, and the LORD your God will bless you in the land you are entering to possess. But if your heart turns away and you are not obedient, and if you are drawn away to bow down to other gods and worship them, I declare to you this day that you will certainly be destroyed. You will not live long in the land you are crossing the Jordan to enter and possess. This day I call heaven and earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live and that you may love the LORD your God, listen to his voice, and hold fast to him. For the LORD is your life, and he will give you many years in the land he swore to give your fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

Psalm 1

Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked or stand in the way of sinners or sit in the seat of mockers. But his delight is in the law of the LORD, and on his law he meditates day and night. He is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither. Whatever he does prospers. Not so the wicked! They are like chaff that the wind blows away. Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous. For the LORD watches over the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked shall perish.

Questions to chew on...

1. What similarities do you notice between these two passages (written at least 500 years apart)?
2. What is promised to the righteous person, or the one who loves the LORD and walks in his ways?
3. What is promised to those that refuse to obey the LORD?
4. What is the result of obedience to the LORD? What's the result of disobedience?
5. How does that compare with a statement that Paul made about 1000 years later: “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 6:23)?
6. So which way are you choosing? Almost all of us would choose life but think of the life choices you are making today, are you choosing obedience and life or have you been choosing disobedience and death (not necessarily physical death like your heart stops but like a piece of your soul just died)?
7. What's an area of your life where the Living God is expecting you to obey? In other words, what's something you know he wants you to do that you haven't been doing? Take a moment to pray and ask him to show you an area.

Take a few minutes just to pray and thank the Living God for the ways he has blessed your life- your parents, your dog, good friends, youth group, the amazing sunset, etc. Ask Him to keep providing you strength to follow his way and obey him.