From just about the very beginning, the human race seems to have an allergy to doing what is for its good. This is never truer than in the second week of January when the first batch of people decide to give up on their new year’s resolutions. We shouldn’t be surprised by this because we’re also bad at goal-setting. We want to accomplish everything right now. We want to skip the hard part, the boring part, the tedious part.
On Sunday, Douglas showed us that God’s faithfulness is most clearly demonstrated in that which looks ordinary, boring, unexceptional (see Genesis 25:1-18). A genealogy, a list of names, is hardly something to keep you on the edge of your seat. Yet, over the course of years, it reveals that God was keeping his promise to Abraham, Isaac, and Hagar.
One of the ways that we can learn this is through the memorisation of Scripture. It is hard, it is tedious, it can be boring. Yet God has commanded his people to hide his word in their hearts. When we engage in the practice of memorising Scripture, we are working the very words of God himself into our hearts and minds.
The incomprehensible God has gifted us with comprehensible words so that we can grow in our love for and knowledge of him. And this truly is for our good.
To that end, this week’s memory verse is Deuteronomy 10:12-13:
“And now, Israel, what does the LORD your God require of you, but to fear the LORD your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, to serve the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and to keep the commandments and statutes of the LORD, which I am commanding you today for your good?
You can find more resources to help you make this a part of your devotional practice here.
