Just Do It!

“Listen to the statutes and the rules that I am teaching you, and do them…  Watch yourselves very carefully… Keep these statutes, which I command you today, that it may go well with you… You shall be careful therefore to do as the Lord your God has commanded you.” (Deuteronomy 4:1, 15, 40; 5:32).

An old preacher once made the following statement: “It’s not what I don’t know about the Bible that bothers me. What bothers me about the Bible is what I do know yet fail to obey.” Does that statement ring true with you?

My guess is that most of us know far much more about the Bible than we incorporate into our lives on a daily basis. That’s not good. What it signifies is that there is a measure of disobedience in our lives. That’s where the above passage impacts each of us.

The words cited above were spoken by Moses as part of his instructions to the Hebrew people just prior to their entering the Promised Land. The people had witnessed the judgment of God upon them for the past forty years. They did not trust the Lord, thus an entire generation passed away before they were ready to possess the land that God promised them. Moses’ instructions to them were prompted by a very certain reality. God expects obedience. When we obey, God blesses. When we disobey, we will always experience the consequences; always.  At one point in his discourse, he said, “If you act corruptly, you will be utterly destroyed.”

Here now is where Moses’ words apply to our lives these many centuries later. There are most likely things we know the Bible teaches, things we know God expects from us as it relates to obedience, yet things that we ignore or flatly refuse to submit to. Frankly, that’s a scary place to be. It signifies our awareness of what God expects, but at the same time our refusal to act accordingly. Let me make this hurt a little more.

Let me ask you to do something this week. Ask God to show you an area in your life in which you are not acting in obedience to what you know is right. I’m guessing that will take a fraction of a second before you become aware of something. That’s not the hard part. The hard part is making up your mind to start obeying, immediately. Delayed obedience is the same as disobedience in God’s eyes. Don’t be discouraged if several examples come to mind as is likely the case. Start with the single thing that most directly reflects your awareness of what God expects. There are two phrases in Moses’ words that caught my attention. He said, “Listen and do them… you shall do as the Lord your God has commanded.”

God expects us to obey him. Excuses are not acceptable. To paraphrase Moses, just do it!!