Today’s devotion comes from Deuteronomy 10:1-16. Here is a link to this Scripture –
I quote only the following verses.
“I, moreover, stayed on the mountain forty days and forty nights like the first time, and the LORD listened to me that time also; the LORD was not willing to destroy you. Then the LORD said to me, ‘Arise, proceed on your journey ahead of the people, that they may go in and possess the land which I swore to their fathers to give them.’
“Now, Israel, what does the LORD your God require from you, but to fear the LORD your God, to walk in all His ways and love Him, and to serve the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and to keep the LORD’S commandments and His statutes which I am commanding you today for your good? Behold, to the LORD your God belong heaven and the highest heavens, the earth and all that is in it. Yet on your fathers did the LORD set His affection to love them, and He chose their descendants after them, even you above all peoples, as it is this day. So circumcise your heart, and stiffen your neck no longer.” Deuteronomy 10:10-16.
—————
Other doctrine teaches us and exhorts us to live out our Christian life out of our own will.
But, Reformed Doctrine teaches us and exhorts us to live out our Christian life out of God’s will.
We live out our Christian life out of God’s will in two senses. First, the basis of who we are and what we do is God’s will to choose us to be His people. Second, the purpose and power of what we specifically do is the will God gives us to do His good pleasure.
Regarding the the first sense of living out our our Christian life out of God’s will on the basis of God’s will to choose us to be His people, consider the following verses in today’s Scripture and the following Scriptures.
“Yet on your fathers did the LORD set His affection to love them, and He chose their descendants after them, even you above all peoples, as it is this day. So circumcise your heart, and stiffen your neck no longer.” Verses 15-16.
“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him. In love He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, which He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved. In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace which He lavished on us. …” Ephesians 1:3-8.
“But you are A CHOSEN RACE, A royal PRIESTHOOD, A HOLY NATION, A PEOPLE FOR God’s OWN POSSESSION, so that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light; for you once were NOT A PEOPLE, but now you are THE PEOPLE OF GOD; you had NOT RECEIVED MERCY, but now you have RECEIVED MERCY.” 1 Peter 2:9-10.
Regarding the second sense living out our our Christian life out of God’s will that the purpose and power of what we specifically do is the will God gives us to do His good pleasure, consider the following Scriptures.
“for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure.” Philippians 2:13.
“So then, my beloved, just as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure.” Philippians 2:12-13.
“For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.” Ephesians 2:10.
“For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus.” Philippians 1:6.
Reformed Doctrine Daily Devotions 