How Then Can We Truly Live?

​…So choose life in order that you may live, you and your descendants, 20  by loving the LORD your God, by obeying His voice, and by holding fast to Him; for this is your life and the length of your days, Deuteronomy 30:19-20 NASB

Some choices are hard. Like how DO you choose between chocolate or caramel to put on top of your ice cream? Why not both? Or which Agatha Christie murder mystery to watch tonight? Every. Night.

But then there are those choices that should come instantly. If I’m hungry, I eat. If I’m cold, I get warm.
Easy-peasy.
A no-brainer.
Totally obvious.

In our life as Jesus followers, however, we can be so dull in understanding, so slow in responding, that our Lord has to go out of his way to explain all the plusses and minuses that our answer will ensue. The clearer the picture between Choice 1 and Choice 2, the easier our response should be.
Right?

Read through Deuteronomy 30 and note how many times the Lord puts forth and reiterates His magnificent Let’s-make-a-deal offer to His people. Only there are no doors hiding these prizes. His choice for His people is reunion, restoration, and compassion. Abundance and prosperity would be the hallmarks of their existence.
The result for rejecting His offer? Adversity and death.

Seems like an obvious pick to me. Who would really choose the dire consequences for rejecting true life?   

This struggle is as old as Eden. The Lord offered mankind perpetual Life.  But when Eve, deceived by the serpent, saw “…that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was desirable to make one wise…” she chose to let go of God to be her own god, disobey His Word, and love her selfish desires more. Adam willfully followed her, bearing offspring whose natures are sinful and unclean.

Without the intervention of the Creator, we are creatures destined for the door of the curse.

But, for the Grace of God.  

“Moreover the LORD your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your descendants, to love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul, so that you may live. Deut. 30:6 NASB (emphasis mine)

The flesh that seeks to satisfy itself can only be removed by the hand of our loving Great Physician. Healing more than our physical diseases, He gives a cure to free us from the curse. Then we will find easy-peasy responses to the deal of a lifetime in verses 11 and 14:
“For this commandment which I command you today is not too difficult for you, nor is it out of reach…. But the word is very near you, in your mouth and in your heart, that you may observe it.” Deut. 30:11, 14 NASB

Not too difficult? My flesh will cry, IMPOSSIBLE!”

Not out of reach? My heart moans for weakness to want to.

What word is near to me, Lord? A humble, “Yes, Lord. Amen!”

The blessed life is ours, as He sees fit to bestow it, as we obediently trust in Him.

God’s deal is still is still offered: Choose life in order to live under His hand of blessing by loving Him first, obeying His voice, and holding fast (clinging) to Him. OR by rejecting this, death.
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Dear one, be blessed: choose Life!
Say YES to Jesus and see the promises of God unfold.

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