Today’s devotion comes from Deuteronomy 6:1-9.
“1 Now this is the commandment, the statutes and the judgments which the Lord your God has commanded me to teach you, that you might do them in the land where you are going over to possess it, 2 so that you and your son and your grandson might fear the Lord your God, to keep all His statutes and His commandments which I command you, all the days of your life, and that your days may be prolonged. 3 O Israel, you should listen and be careful to do it, that it may be well with you and that you may multiply greatly, just as the Lord, the God of your fathers, has promised you, in a land flowing with milk and honey.
4 “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.” Deuteronomy 6:1-9.
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Certainly, these are all good things to do. We should be wise and have enough will-power to do them. But, our hope is not in our wisdom or in our will-power. Our hope is in God. We may and should write God’s Word on our doorposts and our gates. But, we need more for God to write His Word on our hearts. We may exercise lovingkindness, justice, and righteousness. But, we need more for God to exercise His lovingkindness, justice, and righteousness. Today, at our worship service, we may learn what we should do. But, we need more to learn about what God has done.
“Thus says the LORD, “Let not a wise man boast of his wisdom, and let not the mighty man boast of his might, let not a rich man boast of his riches; but let him who boasts boast of this, that he understands and knows Me, that I am the LORD who exercises lovingkindness, justice and righteousness on earth; for I delight in these things,” declares the LORD.” Jeremiah 9:23-24.
“Behold, days are coming,” declares the Lord, “when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, not like the covenant which I made with their fathers in the day I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, although I was a husband to them,” declares the Lord. “But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days,” declares the Lord, “I will put My law within them and on their heart I will write it; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. They will not teach again, each man his neighbor and each man his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they will all know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them,” declares the Lord, “for I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more.” Jeremiah 31:31-34.
“By this the love of God was manifested in us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world so that we might live through Him. In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. … We love, because He first loved us.” 1 John 4:9-10 and 19.
“1 It is good to give thanks to the Lord
And to sing praises to Your name, O Most High;
2 To declare Your lovingkindness in the morning
And Your faithfulness by night,
3 With the ten-stringed lute and with the harp,
With resounding music upon the lyre.
4 For You, O Lord, have made me glad by what You have done,
I will sing for joy at the works of Your hands.” Psalm 94:1-4.
Other doctrine focuses on man, man’s wisdom, man’s alleged free-will, man’s works, and even man’s faith.
Reformed Doctrine knows that a focus on man will only reveal “Total Depravity”, the “T” of “TULIP”.
Rather, than a focus on man, Reformed Doctrine focuses on God, God’s wisdom, God’s will, God’s works, and the faith that comes from God as a gift. From “Unconditional Election” to “Limited Atonement” to “Irresistible Grace” to Preservation of the Saints”, the “U”, “L” “I” and “P” of “TULIP”, Reformed Doctrine declares God’s lovingkindness, justice, and faithfulness and sings for joy at the works of His hands.
Reformed Doctrine Daily Devotions 