God Speaking

“But your hearts must be fully committed to the Lord our God, to live by his decrees and obey his commands, as at this time.”

(1 Kings 8: 61)

This last weekend our family celebrated at our church, the beautiful ceremony of dedication.  Our two youngest grandchildren were dedicated to the Lord, in front of the whole congregation as a public declaration that our daughter and son-in law were promising that these little ones would be faithfully taught about their Heavenly Father, their loving Saviour, Jesus Christ and their powerful Guide through life, the Holy Spirit.

Afterwards as I was reflecting on the morning, I got a new sense about what dedication meant. We have been studying the book of Joshua in our Home Group and one part of this amazing story of God’s faithfulness has stayed in my mind and gives us a wonderful example to follow in both the way we can practice both dedication and commitment.

In the Old Testament, we read of how God commanded Moses to dedicate to him, sacred objects that were to be used in worship. He also chose the tribe of Levi to be the priests who will protect these sacred objects, and the challenging part of reading this history, is to note the absolute commitment they had to this role. When the Israelites finally are ready to cross into the Promised land, God parts the waters of the Jordan for the people to safely walk through, the first ones to step into the waters are the priests carrying the ark.

“Now the Jordan is at flood stage all during harvest. Yet as soon as the priests who carried the ark reached the Jordan and their feet touched the water’s edge, the water from upstream stopped flowing…” (Joshua 3:  15 – 16)

Stepping into the water!!! The waters were still raging when these priests were told to trust God and wade into those formidable waves. I see their obedience to God’s word to be a wonderful example of commitment to the act of dedication. Sometimes what we are facing looks as terrifying as those wild waters, but as one of my friends once told me the act of “getting one’s feet wet” and still trusting God’s faithfulness is the way to tackle whatever faces us.

We too make an act of dedication when we decide to give our lives to follow the Lord Jesus Christ, but the true test of that promise is how committed our lives become in following the Living Word. Fortunately for us, we serve a loving Heavenly Father who knows our every weakness and even is constantly strengthening us and supporting us in all our efforts.

“For the eyes of the Lord range throughout the earth to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to him…” (2 Chronicles 16: 9) 

Sometimes when we commit to do something in our everyday life we can be overwhelmed and wonder if we will be able to fulfill our promise. This too can happen in our Christian walk and doubts can arise, yet again God’s word reassures us that we have that source of strength always available no matter how deep that water may look that we must step into.

“Commit to the Lord whatever you do, and your plans will succeed.” (Proverbs 16: 3)