Deuteronomy 6:6-9 – These commandments that I give to you today are to be upon your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates. (NIV)

In the last few years, it has happened twice now. I have been busily munching away when — crack — I hear and then feel something go snap in my mouth. Each time that I have experienced this, upon further examination, I have discovered that a back molar has cracked, and a small piece of tooth has fallen away. Fortunately, the main part of the tooth has remained intact, and with a little dental repair, no real damage has been done.

These episodes have reminded me, however, of the need to be diligent in remembering God's commands. Even though I have read and reread them and written about them and taught them, I have also discovered that it is easy to get cracks in my memory. I remember part of a passage but not all of it. I remember the meaning of some passages, but others cause me to scratch my head and search the files of my mind concerning their interpretation. I find myself thinking, Now, how does that go again or Where do I find that verse?

Is it any wonder, then, that God wrote to the Israelites what He did in today's passage? He knows the frailty of the human mind. He knows how easy it is for cracks to form within our memories and that repetition, repetition, and more repetition concerning the reading, studying, understanding, and application of His Word is necessary to keep our minds and hearts in tune with His will and His ways.

In today's world of secularism, spending time in God's Word is not a popular pastime, even for many Christians. In fact, there are those who would consider that only those who are a little cracked in the head would waste their time on such things. Far better, in my opinion, however, it is to be labelled cracked in the head by man, than to have my relationship with God cracked in my heart due to forgetting parts of His commands and the glorious, healing truth of His Word. How about you?

Prayer: Father God, thank You so much for the blessing of Your Word. Grant us as Your children a hunger and thirst for You through the revelation of Scripture. May we not be ashamed to talk of Your commands and ways as we walk throughout our day, to think upon them as we sit or lie upon our beds at night, and to gather them together into our hearts day by day, that our relationship with You may be whole and holy, through Christ, the Living Word, in Whose name we pray. Amen.

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About the author:

Lynne Phipps <lynnephippsatlin@gmail.com>
Tawatinaw, Alberta, Canada
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