Morning

April 13

Deuteronomy 30:19-20 ¹⁹This day I call heaven and earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live ²⁰and that you may love the LORD your God, listen to his voice, and hold fast to him. For the LORD is your life, and he will give you many years in the land he swore to give to your fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

Blessings and life or curses and death are our choices. There is no middle ground. We must choose one or the other. Heaven and earth will bear witness to the choice we make. Our choice is visible to all created realms.

It is a wonder that Almighty God gives us such a privilege. Consider the horrible consequences to others if we make the wrong choice, it is a wonder that we get to choose at all. But God is not after robots. He wants relational, volitional creatures. He is looking for those who will desire Him and His goodness of their own free will.

In these verses we find that the choice of life that we make affects our children, our love for God, our ability to hear His voice, and our endurance in the faith. It affects the length of our lives. When the choice is laid out so clearly, and the consequences made so plain, who would choose curses and death? Sadly, many still do. It is easy to believe the lie that other things can deliver these benefits to our lives, especially when a choice lines up with our fleshly desires.

The LORD is our life. We may think our life is wrapped up in things and family and friends, but all those are from the LORD. He is life itself. He breathed into us the breath of life.

Meditation: Have I recognized that Jesus is life?