ESOCS Devotional 30 March 2023: Love God Fervently, Raise Godly Generations

ESOCS Devotional 30 March 2023

MEMORY VERSE: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength. “And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart.” Deuteronomy 6:5-6 NKJV

TEXT: DEUT. 6:1-25

Now this is the instruction, the laws, and the precepts which the Lord your God commanded me to teach you, that you might do them in the land to which you go to possess it,

²That you may [reverently] fear the Lord your God, you and your son and your son’s son, and keep all His statutes and His commandments which I command you all the days of your life, and that your days may be prolonged.

³Hear therefore, O Israel, and be watchful to do them, that it may be well with you and that you may increase exceedingly, as the Lord, the God of your fathers, has promised you, in a land flowing with milk and honey.

⁴Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God is one Lord [the only Lord].

⁵And you shall love the Lord your God with all your [mind and] heart and with your entire being and with all your might.

⁶And these words which I am commanding you this day shall be [first] in your [own] minds and hearts; [then]

⁷You shall whet and sharpen them so as to make them penetrate, and teach and impress them diligently upon the [minds and] hearts of your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down and when you rise up.

⁸And you shall bind them as a sign upon your hand, and they shall be as frontlets (forehead bands) between your eyes.

⁹And you shall write them upon the doorposts of your house and on your gates.

¹⁰And when the Lord your God brings you into the land which He swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to give you, with great and goodly cities which you did not build,

¹¹And houses full of all good things which you did not fill, and cisterns hewn out which you did not hew, and vineyards and olive trees which you did not plant, and when you eat and are full,

¹²Then beware lest you forget the Lord, Who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.

¹³You shall [reverently] fear the Lord your God and serve Him and swear by His name [and presence].

¹⁴You shall not go after other gods, any of the gods of the peoples who are round about you;

¹⁵For the Lord your God in the midst of you is a jealous God; lest the anger of the Lord your God be kindled against you, and He destroy you from the face of the earth.

¹⁶You shall not tempt and try the Lord your God as you tempted and tried Him in Massah.

¹⁷You shall diligently keep the commandments of the Lord your God and His exhortations and His statutes which He commanded you.

¹⁸And you shall do what is right and good in the sight of the Lord, that it may go well with you and that you may go in and possess the good land which the Lord swore to give to your fathers,

¹⁹To cast out all your enemies from before you, as the Lord has promised.

²⁰When your son asks you in time to come, What is the meaning of the testimonies and statutes and precepts which the Lord our God has commanded you?

²¹Then you shall say to your son, We were Pharaoh’s bondmen in Egypt, and the Lord brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand.

²²And the Lord showed signs and wonders, great and evil, against Egypt, against Pharaoh, and all his household, before our eyes;

²³And He brought us out from there, that He might bring us in to give us the land which He swore to give our fathers.

²⁴And the Lord commanded us to do all these statutes, to [reverently] fear the Lord our God for our good always, that He might preserve us alive, as it is this day.

²⁵And it will be accounted as righteousness (conformity to God’s will in word, thought, and action) for us if we are watchful to do all this commandment before the Lord our God, as He has commanded us.

Read Yesterday’s ESOCS Devotional here

The most important requirement for raising godly generations is for you to have personal reality with God. You cannot pass on to your children what you do not possess. We are not only to know this Almighty God, but also, we are to love Him (v. 5). Jesus (Matt. 22:37-38) identified loving God as “the great and foremost commandment” in Scripture. It’s not enough to know about God through His Word, although that is foundational (you can’t love a God you don’t know). Also, you must love Him with your total being. This means entering into a personal relationship with God through saving faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. But like any relationship, you have to maintain and deepen it by spending time alone with the Lord each day, reading and studying the Bible with the constant prayer that should be your number one priority. Personally knowing and loving God is the foundation for raising godly generations after you.

The idea of “heart, soul, and might” (Jesus adds “mind,” Matt. 22:37) is total-person love for God. Every area of our being must be consumed with and subservient to this great quest of loving God. A personal relationship with God is essential. Jesus condemned the Pharisees because, although they were very religious and honored God with their lips, their hearts were far from Him (Mark 7:6-8). They kept their religious rituals, but lacked a love relationship with God. If we’re not careful, it’s easy to fall into going through the motions of being Christians outwardly, but all the while, we do not love God on the heart level.

Genuine Christianity is growing to know God better through His Word and obeying Him more and more, beginning on the heart or thought level, motivated by His great love for us as seen at the cross.

Verse 7: “You shall teach them diligently to your sons and shall talk of them when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way and when you lie down and when you rise up.” “Teach diligently” in Hebrew means literally to sharpen or whet. Your teaching should penetrate your child deeply so that it has an effect on him. You come at it from every angle and in every situation. But the idea rather is making God’s commandments central in your life so that you’re thinking about them all the time. This is an overflow of your own walk with God. If God’s Word is on your heart continually, then you’ll be talking about it constantly with your kids, applying it to real life situations.