I was preparing to finally hang up one of my Christmas presents, a canvas that says, “Pray Big.” I don’t get in a hurry to decorate, just try to overlook it.
As I was doing this, I was considering the other words I have on my walls. Somewhere in the middle of that God put the verses from Deuteronomy 11 on my heart. Technically, it was verse 20 that jumped into my head. It says, “And you shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.” (NKJV). To be honest, I just remembered about writing words on the doorposts, so I had to look it up.
This was Moses, shortly before his death, offering final teachings to the Israelites just as they were ending their 40-year journey and preparing to enter the Promised Land. If you spend some time reading more in Deuteronomy, you can almost feel Moses’ urgency. You can feel him pleading his case for them to obey God’s law.
He tells them to write the words on their hearts, hands, foreheads, doorposts, gates – basically everywhere their eyes and thoughts might land. In this, I connect with Moses. I want God’s Word, God’s promises, and anything that helps my eyes, thoughts, and heart to focus on obeying and strengthening my relationship with the Lord, to be in front of me. I don’t want to be deceived or turned aside or anger God. I want to teach my children and, like Joshua, tell anyone outside of my house where I stand and whom I serve. I want to ingest these nuggets frequently because they steer my mind to better places.
I do have regular, daily Bible reading time, but I can’t read it nonstop. I also happen to know that what goes in is what comes out. I’ve written about that before because I feel strongly that it is an underused tool in just helping us be better Christians and better humans.
When we put God’s Word or commands in places we can’t miss, then we’re consuming what we need. I believe the same is true with uplifting words and thoughts. It simply helps us consume better, and there is value in that. When we consume better, consistently, what we put back into the world becomes better.
If you’ve followed me on social media for a hot minute, you’ll know that I put this into practice on those “walls” every day. God asked me to begin doing that about five years ago. He has yet to tell me to stop. I can’t be certain whether it’s more to help me or to help others. I can say that, in this matter, my obedience has been rewarded because the quality of my own thoughts has improved. When the quality of your thoughts improves, everything improves. Try it for yourself. Choose more deliberately what your eyes, your mind, your heart focus on.
I keep putting those words where they can be seen in the hopes that we remember the Lord and the things that come from Him. The fruits of the spirit for instance. According to Galatians chapter 4 – the things which there is no law against – these are love, kindness, joy, peace, goodness, patience, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.
Back in Deuteronomy 11, verses 26-28 tell us that we have choice that results in a blessing or curse. If we obey God, the reward is blessing. When we consume good in our hearts and minds, we produce good. We want to obey. We see God’s blessings. This is how God designed us to work. It’s not that we suddenly have everything we want or all things go our way, it’s that we begin to see blessings where we couldn’t before. We experience His peace that others don’t always understand.
I put those words and others that point my heart to God wherever I can so that I can consume them, think on them, and remember. These words can’t and shouldn’t take the place of quality time spent reading and studying God’s Word in full, but they can help us remember to love the Lord our God, to walk in all His ways, and to hold fast to Him.
