Deliberate

Today’s writing is dedicated to another author, Fiona, who writes the blog, Finding God in the Everyday. First thing this morning as I began my daily quiet reading and pondering time, her post was inviting me to start with her thoughts on the one word, deliberate. Before I could go and look for the word on which we write this 12th day of May 2023, she handed it to me along with a thought I also hold dear. Her words, “I love when the prompt ties up with my day’s Bible reading!”

What I hold even dearer is that her words turned my eyes toward Jesus and His Word. Thank you, Fiona and Kate Motaung, with whom I participate for another Five Minute Friday. Setting my timer for 5 minutes and letting my pondering thoughts become words in print.

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de·​lib·​er·​ate  1: characterized by or resulting from careful and thorough consideration (a deliberate decision) 2: characterized by awareness of the consequences (a deliberate exaggeration; a deliberate act of protest) 3: slow, unhurried, and steady as though allowing time for a decision on each individual action involved

Merriam-Webster

Be careful to follow every command I am giving you today, so that you may live and increase and may enter and possess the land the Lord promised on oath to your ancestors. 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. 

Deuteronomy 8:1-2

Some of the first words I read this morning were these: “I love when the prompt ties up with my day’s Bible reading!” Words contained within a blog post sent me directly to my YouVersion Bible app. I too wanted to see how this one word might fit with my daily Bible reading plan. My assigned reading for today showed Deuteronomy 8-11. Actually, this was yesterday’s assigned reading because, as usual, I am a day behind. However, this is where I left off and so I began to read.

“Be careful… and remember…So obey…be sure…be careful…beware…do not forget…be careful…” I think you get the point. The words of Moses in these four chapters are a call to be deliberate in choosing a loving and faithful relationship with God. Of course, his words were directed at the Israelite people with whom he had wandered the wilderness for the last 4o years of his life. But God intended the words for all of us. His words and His purposes are eternal and good.

In my pondering, it dawned on me afresh that God wants us to live a deliberate life because He is a good Father. He wants the best for us, but He knows our tendency to wander. God is the One who actually embodies the meaning of deliberate. God is faithful. He is long-suffering. God is the promise keeper. He deliberately treats us with mercy and grace and loving discipline because He knows us. He has seen our pride and stubborn independence. And yet God loves us and is devoted to His purposes and plans.

 Be careful that you do not forget the Lord your God, failing to observe his commands, his laws and his decrees that I am giving you this day. Otherwise, when you eat and are satisfied, when you build fine houses and settle down, and when your herds and flocks grow large and your silver and gold increase and all you have is multiplied, then your heart will become proud and you will forget the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. 

Deuteronomy 8:11-14

Deliberate. My faith isn’t cultivated without intention. My eyes don’t seek Jesus accidentally. I must be purposeful. And so, I have a Savior who helps me to be devoted. He is faithful. He is the deliberate one.

And I am remembering this again today.

Eyes on Jesus and Shine,

~Lisa