By Jaela

Read: Deuteronomy 4:1-49, Luke 6:39-7:10, Psalm 68:1-18, Proverbs 11:28

The Lord your God is a devouring fire; he is a jealous God.
In the distant future, when you are suffering all these things, you will finally return to the Lord your God and listen to what he tells you. For the Lord your God is a merciful God; he will not abandon you or destroy you or forget the solemn covenant he made with your ancestors.
Deuteronomy 4:24, 30-31

Relate:

Around four years ago, up until COVID time ended, this was the point of my life where I always felt like Satan and the world were conquering my life. I never felt peace, and I never felt like my life was going on a good turn; I felt like I was just doing things to survive just because I needed to, that there was no reason for me to live. To specify, one time before COVID started, when I did something horrible, I started drama and framed it on someone else. It was terrible that the guidance counselor had to talk to people about it. I found it funny at the start because I didn’t like the person I was framing. I felt like the devil got to me and used my soul and my body to do something horrific. As time passed, I continued to do things I knew wouldn’t please God.

But there was a time in COVID when my aunt asked some other cousins and me if we wanted to have Bible Study together since my other cousin and their family were having trouble. Things were just challenging, so my aunt tried to help us all understand and learn more about the Lord to get through all the trials he is giving us. So through these, we can somehow see and submit ourselves to the Lord. During these Bible studies, I understood more about God, liked it a lot, and started to feel better and happier. I began to go with my aunt and some cousins to an online church in CCF.

As COVID-19 decreased, people started going out, and face-to-face schools began happening. I decided that I didn’t want to go to my old school anymore since I realized how being there made me more conscious of myself; people were “fake,” and it barely taught me anything about faith and God. Since my cousins used to go to Faith, they introduced me to this school and saw how amazing and happy they are now. I wanted to become like them and experience what they experienced as believers and learn more as they went to this school. So I went to Faith, and until now, I feel like my life has improved. I worry less, I feel happier, I understand more about life, I have inner peace, and I have a much more thankful heart.

Deuteronomy 4:30-31 states how, in our sufferings, we will soon return to the Lord, who will accept us since he is loving and merciful. I feel so grateful for how God showed Himself and brought me to Him. As I continue my life, I want to share what God has shown me to others since I feel like they would also feel what I felt after, the happiness and joy that are not from the world but from God, which is different and feels so much better than anything else. He truly is a merciful and loving God.

React:
Deuteronomy 4 talks about Moses and him teaching Israel about God’s commands and what would happen if we broke them. First, he teaches us to obey the Lord, follow his commands, and not question him. If we choose to break a command like how he said when people worshiped another God, they died and only the people who followed the Lord were still alive. He talks about how if we obey him he will give us the wisdom and knowledge to continue and share what we have learned with other people and tell them about the good news, especially tell these things to our kids and grandchildren. It may seem as if obeying is like following rules and authority but in this case it is more than that, we can see that God loves us so much that he wouldn’t force us that’s why we have the free will to make decisions but obeying him is something that we can show to God that we love him, so basically our response to his love for us. 

The second part of Deuteronomy 4 that I wanted to talk about is worshiping idols, this is something that I can say everyone has experienced, we all had this “idol” we worshiped whether it was a celebrity, a friend, an animal, a thing, or whatever. We all have something in our life. It is hard to stop having idols but God tells us here that we should always continue to strengthen our relationship with the Lord and as we continue this, having idols won’t be a big deal anymore since God has helped us through our journey and stayed by our side when we are facing problems like worshiping other idols other than God himself. Deuteronomy 4:24, “The Lord your God is a devouring fire; he is a jealous God,” this verse emphasizes not his pettiness, need to be loved, or need to be everyone’s first choice, but instead it represents the fact that since we are believers, we should be committed to him and show that we are by not worshipping other idols. 

Respond:

Dear Lord,
Thank You for the amazing life You have given us, thank You for Your merciful heart and how You always see the good in everyone and give us all second chances. I pray that as we continue our lives, You will continue to guide us into spreading the gospel, obeying Your word, and focusing ourselves only on You and Your glory. I pray that everyone would somehow find You and you would show yourself to everyone since they all deserve to hear Your word because it might change their life like how it did to me. I pray You will continue to give us the guidance that we need. We are all sorry for all the sins we have committed and how we are so disobedient. Thank You for being so kind to us.
Amen.