Important

This is the first word prompt of 2022 from the #Five Minute Friday Group of writers, and my first time back in a while.

Important is a good word to kick us off this year. What is important? Mmmh if I think about it there are lots of things which I think are important and which I give priority to. However, I have started reading the Book of Deuteronomy and in it Moses is outlining to the people of Israel what is important to take with them into the promised land and the most important thing which he underlines again and again is to remember!

Remember the Lord your God.

Remember His deliverance,

Remember His provision,

Remember His guidance,

Remember His holiness,

Remember His commands,

Remember Him!

If they didn’t remember, give heed to, draw alongside the Lord their God, then they would think that they had achieved everything themselves, that it was their own effort, their own goodness which had gotten them through the wilderness and into this promised land. But it wasn’t! Not by a long shot!

You must recognize that the Lord your God is not giving you this good land because you are good, for you are not – you are a stubborn people

Deuteronomy 9:6 (NLT)

When you have eaten your fill, be sure to praise the Lord your God for the good land He has given you. But that is the time to be careful. Beware that in your plenty you do not forget the Lord your God and disobey His commands, regulations and decrees that I am giving you this day.

Deuteronomy 8:10,11

So too us we have to remember the Lord our God. Remember His deliverance from the sin that entrapped us; remember His goodness even in taking us through our own wildernesses which tightened out bonds to Him, remember the times we tried to do it in our own strength and failed; remember His goodness and redeeming love in picking us up again.

So the most important thing for me this year is to REMEMBER the Lord my God, tying myself in dependence upon Him, relying on Him and giving Him the glory due to Him, acknowledging that anything I have is all by grace.

Observant

Today’s prompt for the #Five Minute Friday group of writers is: Observant.

In the bible when we are called to be observant, we are being called to be mindful of the things of God, to be attentive to His Word, to heed His warnings and commands; to pay attention.

It has been on my mind a lot recently that ‘we have never been this way before’, we have never gone through a Pandemic; we have never had to be locked away from our loved ones and have our lives restricted by Lockdowns and so it is no wonder that our emotions and mental health are all over the place; no wonder we are struggling, we have never faced this before.

Then the other day I was reading this passage from the book of Joshua and noticed that the people of Israel also ‘had never been this way before’.

After three days the officers went throughout the camp, giving orders to the people: “When you see the ark of the covenant of the Lord your God, and the Levitical priests carrying it, you are to move out from your positions and follow it. Then you will know which way to go, since you have never been this way before. But keep a distance of about two thousand cubits That is, about 3,000 feet or about 900 meters between you and the ark; do not go near it.”

Joshua 3:2-4

So what were they to do? – They were to be observant!

They had never been this way, so they were to carefully observe which way the Ark of the Covenant, the Presence of the Lord was leading them. They were to watch it, move to a place where they could see it; heed any change of direction; any veering to one side; they were to be observant to the ways of the Lord.

So for me today I need to step out to a place where I have known the presence of the Lord and I need to give careful consideration, careful observance to the way He is leading in this time of unknown. When I am walking in those unknown paths I am to give care observance to what He is doing and where He is leading.