Reformed Doctrine Daily Devotions

Today’s devotion comes from Deuteronomy 30:1-14.

“So it shall be when all of these things have come upon you, the blessing and the curse which I have set before you, and you call them to mind in all nations where the LORD your God has banished you, and you return to the LORD your God and obey Him with all your heart and soul according to all that I command you today, you and your sons, then the LORD your God will restore you from captivity, and have compassion on you, and will gather you again from all the peoples where the LORD your God has scattered you.  If your outcasts are at the ends of the earth, from there the LORD your God will gather you, and from there He will bring you back.  The LORD your God will bring you into the land which your fathers possessed, and you shall possess it;  and He will prosper you and multiply you more than your fathers.

“Moreover the LORD your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your descendants, to love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul, so that you may live.  The LORD your God will inflict all these curses on your enemies and on those who hate you, who persecuted you.  And you shall again obey the Lord, and observe all His commandments which I command you today.  Then the LORD your God will prosper you abundantly in all the work of your hand, in the offspring of your body and in the offspring of your cattle and in the produce of your ground, for the LORD will again rejoice over you for good, just as He rejoiced over your fathers;   if you obey the LORD your God to keep His commandments and His statutes which are written in this book of the law, if you turn to the LORD your God with all your heart and soul.”  

“For this commandment which I command you today is not too difficult for you, nor is it out of reach.  It is not in heaven, that you should say, ‘Who will go up to heaven for us to get it for us and make us hear it, that we may observe it?’  Nor is it beyond the sea, that you should say, ‘Who will cross the sea for us to get it for us and make us hear it, that we may observe it?’  But the word is very near you, in your mouth and in your heart, that you may observe it.”  Deuteronomy 30:1-14.

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There is much hope in today’s Scripture.  

But, the hope is not us.  The hope is not in our own ability to keep the LORD’s commandments.  

The hope is in the LORD.  The hope is in what the LORD has done.  The hope is faith that is a gift of the LORD.  “But the word is very near you, in your mouth and in your heart, that you may observe it.”  Verse 14.

“But what does it say?  “THE WORD IS NEAR YOU, IN YOUR MOUTH AND IN YOUR HEART”—that is, the word of faith which we are preaching, that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved;  for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation.”  Romans 10:8-10.

“For by grace you have been saved through faith;  and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God;  not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.”  Ephesians 2:8-9.