by Deacon Michael Bickerstaff | March 19, 2024 12:05 am
“This day the Lord your God commands you to do these statutes and ordinances; you shall therefore be careful to do them with all your heart and with all your soul.”
– Deuteronomy 26:16
God has loved and blessed us. Each of us has been placed in this life as pilgrims on a journey. The gift of Salvation is freely offered. We cannot earn our way into Heaven. Our response in faith, our yes, begins our walk. Jesus teaches us that if we love Him, we will obey His commands. So, at the end of this journey, if we have obeyed the Father through faith and in the grace won for us by His Son, we will enjoy eternal joy and beatitude in union with God in the life to come.
How do we view the commandments of God?
If we see them as obstacles to doing what we want to do, we are looking at them in the wrong way. They are not arbitrary rules and regulations intended to frustrate our happiness. The Second Person of the Blessed Trinity, co-eternal with the Father and the Holy Spirit became the God-man Jesus. Jesus found joy in doing what the Father had sent Him to do. And so will we, when we obey God. God’s commands are our road map to a full life and eternal joy. They guide us to become who we were made to be. God’s commandments are not burdens, they are blessings straight from His heart.
In Deuteronomy, Moses reminds us that right living flows from the heart which for the Jews was the very core of their existence. Right living comes from right loving. We obey God because we love Him.
Let us be about doing the work of the Father with joy in our heart.
Remember, you are dust, and to dust you will return. Repent and believe in the Gospel.
Image credit: “Sacred Heart of Jesus” (detail) by Chambers | via Restored Traditions
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