Your First Love

Scripture: Now what I am commanding you today is not too difficult for you or beyond your reach. It is not up in heaven, so that you have to ask, "Who will ascend into heaven to get it and proclaim it to us so we may obey it?" Nor is it beyond the sea, so that you have to ask, "Who will cross the sea to get it and proclaim it to us so we may obey it?" No, the word is very near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart so you may obey it. Deuteronomy 30:11-14

Observation: As Moses concludes his final teaching of the law, he provides final words of encouragement. He does tell them the law represents both blessing and curse, but here he directly tells Israel "you can do this!". Moses shows them that all of this obedience to the Lord is doable ... they don't have to perform some mighty feat or send a hero on a quest to obtain knowledge, power, and wisdom, but rather all they need to know is already in their own hearts and minds. All they need to do is love the Lord, and as a result of that love to speak and do his word.

God will soon inform Moses that they will fail. If Moses is correct - that this isn't really all that hard - then the fact they will fail (and they will) is difficult to accept. If God is truly in their hearts and in their minds, poured out from them through their words and deeds, then there should be no problem. Clearly, this conundrum resolves itself ... God is not truly in their hearts, because at the end of the day their first love is not God, but themselves.

Application: I will not point a finger at Israel, because I am the same. I think regularly about myself - what I want, need, feel, hope - far more than about what God wants. I say I love the Lord and love Jesus, but I spend most of my day wondering how to improve my future life, with the great irony being that I have no idea what the future might even look like and often understanding that I have little ability to influence it.

I love myself so much more than I love God that I will fill my head with hypotheticals about me that are not in any possible realm of reality, and not think about what I could simply do or say right now to bring just a little of the kingdom of God.

We will all do whatever best aligns to our true first love. Am I willing to remove myself from that place in my heart, and ensure that Jesus is in that place all the time and not just when I remember him?

Prayer: Lord, I will answer my own question. Yes, I am willing, but I am weak. I have been well manipulated to love myself, as have all humans. Please forgive me, and help me to supplant my selfish perspective with a fuller attention on you and your will. I love you more than I love myself. Please help me to make that statement true in every second of my life. Amen.