"Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God is one Lord: And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might. And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart." Deuteronomy 6:4-6
You know, I've been thinking about something lately that I think we all need to wrestle with. What are we leaving behind? Not just the stuff in our attics or the money in our bank accounts, but the faith we're passing down to the next generation. That's what Moses was getting at in Deuteronomy 6, right there on the threshold of the Promised Land, giving the people one last reminder before they went in.
I heard a story once about a grandma back in 1955 who only had a third-grade education and could barely read. But every single night, she'd pull her grandson up on her lap with a worn-out King James Bible in her hand. She'd tell him the stories, David and Goliath, the three Hebrew children in the fiery furnace, Daniel in the lion's den. And as he got older, she'd have him read the Bible to her. That little boy grew up to have a national radio ministry that impacted millions of people around the world. All because one grandma faithfully read God's Word to her grandson.
Sometimes Satan will try to make you think you can't make any real difference in the kingdom of God. You're just one person. What does it matter? But friend, you don't know the impact of the choices you make today. You don't know what your children and grandchildren are going to do in this world. And if you can influence them for Christ, they can have exponential influence all around the world.
Now here's something I want you to understand about God's commandments. They're not some kind of moral handcuffs to keep you from having fun. The commandments of God are the guardrails of life. If you've ever been to the Snake River Canyon, you've seen those guardrails along the walking path that keep you safe from that massive, deep canyon. Those guardrails aren't there to ruin your view or limit your freedom. They're there to keep you from destroying yourself.
That's what God's Word does for us. It's not taking something from you, it's giving something to you. It provides structure, stability, a secure foundation for living. There's an old saying I love: a Bible that's falling apart is almost always owned by somebody whose life isn't falling apart. If you can use God's divine revelation as the blueprint for the life you live, as the roadmap giving you direction, you're going to find that you live a very stable, successful, good life.
But here's the thing Moses was really driving at in Deuteronomy 6. The love for God must be complete and comprehensive. "Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God is one Lord: And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might." This isn't just about knowing the right answers. This is about being completely sold out to God so that when you teach your children, they can see what you do, not just what you say.
Chuck Swindoll used to say, "Do not traffic in unlived truth." That hit me hard when I first heard it. We all learn more by seeing than by hearing. If we're going to pass down a legacy of faith, we've got to live it ourselves so our kids and grandkids can see it in action. Moses said these words should be written on our hearts. Not just stored on our phones or sitting on a shelf, but hidden deep in our hearts where we take them with us wherever we go.
Now I'll be honest with you, I'm concerned that we're losing something vital in this technology age. We've outsourced our memory to our devices. You probably remember when you were a kid, you had to memorize twenty or thirty phone numbers. Now you probably struggle to remember your wife's phone number because you just tap her name on the screen. We're becoming dependent on technology to remember for us, and what we're losing is God's Word hidden in our hearts.
God didn't just want His Word written on stone tablets. He wanted it written in your heart. Because when it's in your heart, you can't leave it at home on the charger. It goes with you to work, to the grocery store, to that difficult conversation you didn't see coming. The psalmist said, "Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee" (Psalm 119:11). That's not just a nice idea, friend, that's survival equipment for living in this fallen world.
So here's my challenge for you today, and I'm right there with you on this one because I'm too soon old and too late smart. Could you memorize just one verse a week? Just one. Read it ten times in the morning, ten times at lunch, ten times before bed. Do that for seven days and you'll have read it 210 times. You'll have it memorized. At the end of the year, you'll have 52 verses hidden in your heart. That's more than most people will ever memorize, and that's a legacy you can pass down to the next generation.
Let's pray: Father, help us to be faithful in hiding Your Word in our hearts. Give us the discipline to memorize Your truth and the courage to live it out so that our children and grandchildren can see real faith in action. May we leave a legacy that points them to You. In Jesus' name, Amen.
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