Love God Greatly - Made for CommunitySample

Moses tells the Israelites to implant the commandments of God in their hearts, so that it shall be poured out into their children and their grandchildren. The Israelites were told to teach the commandments of their hearts to their children, talking about them throughout the day. In biblical times, the Israelites had a practice of wearing written scriptures strapped to their hands, their forehead, and nailed to their doorposts so that they would be a continual reminder of the Lord. In our day, the Word of God should be forefront in our minds (forehead) while the knowledge of the Word should lead us to use our hands (hands) to serve Him. As someone enters our front door (doorposts), they should sense the presence of God in our homes. Whatever is in our hearts will be poured out through our speech, our behavior, and our attitude. Our children absorb all of this and begin to mimic it.

It's easy to think that God wants so many other things from us - our time, our obedience, our sacrifice, our money, our service, etc. Yet, He desires our love. When we focus on the love we have for Him, all of those other things will follow as a result. When we try to give the Lord those things without love, we'll find ourselves working out of sheer obligation and our effort will quickly turn into legalism. We can love the Lord with all that we have: our heart, our soul, and our strength, because He first made the ultimate sacrifice for each of us out of His unfailing love.

The love we have for the Lord will overflow and flood our relationships with our children. They will be the first witnesses of the reflection of God in our lives. How often do our children hear us speak of Jesus as the center of our lives? Do they see us worrying and stressing when difficult times come or do they see us praying and meditating on God’s Word? When our children have problems at school, at their jobs, or in their friendships, do we first pray with them and then address the situation? Those godly demonstrations of God’s place in our lives set the standard for our children. Our actions communicate to them, the great love of Jesus and the honor that must be bestowed upon Him.

PRAYER: Father God, You are the God of absolute truth and righteousness. We can entrust our entire lives to You, this includes the lives of our children. Lord, remove any people, obstacles, or distractions that hinder us from giving You all of our hearts and all of our lives. Lord, help us to be godly examples to our children. Open up opportunities for us to share Your Word and speak about You each day with our children. Guard their hearts from receiving anything from us that is not of You. Let those things that are of You be added and multiplied in their hearts and minds. In Jesus’ name. Amen.