Verse of the Day 4/30
Deuteronomy 8:2 Remember how the Lord your God led you all the way in the wilderness these forty years, to humble and test you in order to know what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep his commands. New International Version (NIV)
Today's passage in Deuteronomy points back to the time when God led His people through the wilderness, for forty years. Navigating the challenges and trials of this pandemic can seem like a wilderness journey for us. Many questions remain as does much uncertainty about where we are headed. How quickly will this thing end? How long before the economy will recover, will it recover? What will the new normal be like?
One thing we can be sure of, we know who it is that we should follow. Just as in the books of Exodus and Deuteronomy God calls His people to follow Him in His Word. Follow where He leads in serving Him and others.
I recently read of Sidney Cox who worked with the Salvation Army for many years. He passed away in 1975 but he left us with some songs that many of us may remember from childhood, singing loudly week in and week out in Sunday School. Do you remember singing "Deep and Wide"? Go ahead and sing it going through the motions that you learned. Or how about "I Love Him Better Every Day", that is D-A-Y. Close by His side we will abide and love Him better every day. But perhaps the best one that relates to us and our time is "My Lord Knows the Way Through the Wilderness", All I have to do is follow...Strength for today is mine all the way and all I need for tomorrow.... My Lord knows the way through this wilderness, all I have to do is follow.
Most of us were children when we learned and sang those songs and we probably don't have much of an idea of some of the things our parents were going through when they taught us and led us in singing those songs, but I believe that they took them to heart. It may have taken years and decades, but for us, hopefully, we have taken them to heart and learned to follow and will follow however long it takes to get through this wilderness.
May He lead you through this day.
-- In Christ, Mike Folllow the Verse of the Day blog at http://mikesvotd.blogspot.com Ephesians 1:7 In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God's grace. NIV
Deuteronomy 8 New King James Version (NKJV)
Remember the Lord Your God
8 "Every commandment which I command you today you must [a]be careful to observe, that you may live and multiply,[b] and go in and possess the land of which the Lord [c]swore to your fathers. 2 And you shall remember that the Lord your God led you all the way these forty years in the wilderness, to humble you and test you, to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep His commandments or not. 3 So He humbled you, allowed you to hunger, and fed you with manna which you did not know nor did your fathers know, that He might make you know that man shall not live by bread alone; but man lives by every word that proceeds from the mouth of the Lord. 4 Your garments did not wear out on you, nor did your foot swell these forty years. 5 You should [d]know in your heart that as a man chastens his son, so the Lord your God chastens you.
6 "Therefore you shall keep the commandments of the Lord your God, to walk in His ways and to fear Him. 7 For the Lord your God is bringing you into a good land, a land of brooks of water, of fountains and springs, that flow out of valleys and hills; 8 a land of wheat and barley, of vines and fig trees and pomegranates, a land of olive oil and honey; 9 a land in which you will eat bread without scarcity, in which you will lack nothing; a land whose stones are iron and out of whose hills you can dig copper. 10 When you have eaten and are full, then you shall bless the Lord your God for the good land which He has given you.
