Remembering And Responding - Turning Points with God

I will delight myself in Your statutes; I will not forget Your word.

Psalm 119:16

Which is easier—to make your bed in the morning or leave it unmade? To volunteer for a community project or to watch TV all weekend? To vacuum, wash, and wax your car or to leave it dirty? The easiest choices reflect the Second Law of Thermodynamics: all work processes tend toward a greater state of disorder over time without fresh injections of new energy.

This law applies both physically and spiritually. Leave your car parked in a field, and it will rust and fall apart. The same will happen in your spiritual life. Forget to maintain the spiritual disciplines you have learned, and in time, your life will take on increasing signs of disorder. That’s what happened to the Israelites when they returned to Jerusalem from captivity. They started out obeying God, but in time they lost their energy. They stopped giving Him the first and best from their lives, and the prophet Malachi called them to account (Malachi 3:7-9). If you can see disorder creeping into your life, make sure you are still giving your first and best to God.

Remembering and responding to God’s will takes new energy every day. That’s just the way it is this side of heaven.

People need to be reminded more often than they need to be instructed.

SAMUEL JOHNSON