Got Fruit ?

I ran across this post which I think has some excellent pointers for gaging your walk with Christ.

I found myself in a marathon reading session; which ended sometime in the early hours of this morning with me finishing Deuteronomy. There are no pictures in my Bible so the going was slow. A few thoughts that are still fresh in my mind come specifically from Deuteronomy 8. Throughout the book of Deuteronomy however, Moses repeatedly stresses to the Israelites three keys of their relationship with God:

• The Israelites are to follow every command completely with their hearts
• The Israelites are reminded by Moses that they are a special people
• The Israelites are to remember the Lord their God.

Moses tells the Israelites that they are to obey the laws and decrees authored by God, and I think it’s not simply on the principle of because “The Lord said so”, but because the Lord is their God (this is what makes them special). Because of the love God has for the Israelites, He has their welfare in mind. Unlike the idols of surrounding nations; the Israelites have a relationship with their God, the one true God.

Deuteronomy 8:1-2
1 Be careful to follow every command I am giving you today, so that you may live and increase and may enter and possess the land that the LORD promised on oath to your forefathers. 2 Remember how the LORD your God led you all the way in the desert these forty years, to humble you and to test you in order to know what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep his commands.

Whenever Moses goes on to reiterate to the Israelites to “remember the Lord your God”, not only was he referring to the past events such as the 40 years in the desert, I think that he’s also warning the Israelites in their future times of prosperity to not let that prosperity go to their heads…

Deuteronomy 8:17-18
17 You may say to yourself, “My power and the strength of my hands have produced this wealth for me.”18 But remember the LORD your God, for it is he who gives you the ability to produce wealth, and so confirms his covenant, which he swore to your forefathers, as it is today.

…thinking that they’ve accomplished anything based on their own abilities, works or merit. Which brings us to the modern day Christian and our relationship with Christ. Like the Israelites, we too are to be obedient Children of God, made “special”, because of Jesus. But how easy it is to allow life to grab hold of us and to then forget the Lord our God by:

• making careers top priority
• neglecting to make or take time to spend in His presence
• being reluctant to trust God with our “baggage”

• treating God as though He were a Genie in a bottle
• giving God our leftovers: time, resources

Let us remember how the Lord our God delivered us each from our former “life”, so that we too may live and increase in Him.

Grace and peace be with you.