Remember the Lord – The Law of God and Spiritual Discipline

Remember the Lord

The Law of God and Spiritual Discipline

We must devote ourselves to keeping the Lord in the forefront of our minds.

“And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart….You shall bind them as a sign on your hand and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes.”  Deuteronomy 6:6, 8

God is ever-present with His people, continuously attending to their needs by His steadfast love and caring for them in His faithfulness according to the promises of His Covenant. He expects the same in return. God expects us to strive to love Him as much and as continuously as He does us. Of course, we cannot possibly hope to realize this objective; nevertheless, He expects us to strive for it, so that we might always have God in our hearts and on our minds to shape our values and priorities and to guide our steps.

Our text speaks of three ways we may accomplish this. First, we must learn to love God and His Law as the supreme desire of our hearts. Love for God and His Word will guide everything else we are and do, but we have to work hard to keep other, lesser “loves” from crowding out supreme devotion to God and His Word. And we must devote time to being in God’s Word and meeting Him there in order to nurture fear of God into love for Him.

Second, we must keep God’s Law and Word in our minds like frontlets strapped to our foreheads, so that all our thinking, planning, evaluation, and doing are guided by the instruction of His Word. Daily meditation and memorizing of Scripture can certainly help in this requirement, as can talking often with other believers about the things we are learning from God’s Word.

But, third, we must bring the Law to expression in the work of our hands so that every aspect of our lives, all our words and deeds, reflect the glory of God and the practices of love revealed in His Law and Word. Paul would affirm as much for New Covenant believers as well (1 Cor. 10:31; Col. 3:23, 24).

In ancient Israel everyday reminders of their status as a holy people—tassels on their robes, not wearing clothes made of two cloths, observing daily sacrifices and offerings—would help them actively to remember the Lord. The Hebrew verb “remember” (zachar) means something like “pay continuous attention to” and thus helps us to understand better how we should practice this discipline in every aspect of our lives, every moment of every day.

For a more complete exposition of the promises of God, order a copy of T. M.’s book, I Will Be Your God, from our online store. Here is an additional meditation on everyday reminders.

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In the Gates is a devotional series on the Law of God by Rev. T.M. Moore, editor of the Worldview Church. He serves as dean of the Centurions Program of the Wilberforce Forum and principal of The Fellowship of Ailbe, a spiritual fellowship in the Celtic Christian tradition. He is the author or editor of twenty books, and has contributed chapters to four others. His essays, reviews, articles, papers, and poetry have appeared in dozens of national and international journals, and on a wide range of websites. His most recent books are The Ailbe Psalter and The Ground for Christian Ethics (Waxed Tablet).

Scripture quotations in this article are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version, (c) copyright 2001, 2007 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.