Live Out What God Puts In

Daily Reading: Hebrews 8

Scripture Focus: For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my laws into their minds, and write them on their hearts, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And they shall not teach, each one his neighbor and each one his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest. (Hebrews 8.10-11)

Devotional Thought: When my children were growing up, there were certain rules and behaviors that we taught them: respect other’s property and privacy, control your temper, fulfill your responsibilities, say your prayers, and so on.  At first – when they were quite young – these behaviors were enforced by the steady pressure of parental guidance and discipline.  In extreme cases of negligence, they were punctuated with an exclamation point!  As they grew older, however, they learned to internalize the values that were behind the behaviors.

The Old Covenant that God had with his people was like the condition of children, before they internalize the values and behaviors of their parents.  The Law served as a constant external pressure to get them to conform to God’s will.  But, God was not satisfied with that covenant.  He wanted something better for his children: internal values to direct their behavior.  

God writes his law directly in our minds and on our hearts.  We don’t have to be told what to do; we know it from the Spirit within us.  To be sure, the Spirit uses the teachings of the Bible, the preaching of the Word, the example of spiritual mentors, and the guidance of the Church, in order to form the Christian’s understanding of God’s will.  But, the Spirit writes those things onto our hearts, so that they become first nature to us.  They are not imposed from outside, but lived from within.

The only way to have deep joy as a Christian is to live out what God has put in.

Prayer: Lord, thank you for putting your laws into my mind and writing them on my heart.  I gladly live out what you have put in.  Amen.

Psalm of the Day: Psalm 49.1-9

1 Hear this, all peoples! Give ear, all inhabitants of the world,

2 both low and high, rich and poor together!

3 My mouth shall speak wisdom; the meditation of my heart shall be understanding.

4 I will incline my ear to a proverb; I will solve my riddle to the music of the lyre.

5 Why should I fear in times of trouble, when the iniquity of those who cheat me surrounds me,

6 those who trust in their wealth and boast of the abundance of their riches?

7 Truly no man can ransom another, or give to God the price of his life,

8 for the ransom of their life is costly and can never suffice,

9 that he should live on forever and never see the pit.