Things We Do

Do me a favor, please, and think of the last time you went walking. If you live in the country, it might have been a trip to the mailbox but even a trip to the front porch to pick up mail would do.  Doesn’t have to be a multi-mile hike, though walking to raise money for a good cause would fall into this request.

Did you have shoes on?  Might have been outside, then, with lots of sounds. If you’re in the city, there would be traffic, and some of our country sounds of dogs barking, cats mewing, birds singing. Did you think of some of those things when you thought of walking?

Did you think about moving the muscles in your feet and legs to propel you along your path?  Probably not.

There are so many things we do without thinking about them  Beyond the body’s functions that operate involuntarily – heart beats, for one; cell creation for another – the things we do require thought, when we learn them.  Then they are so ordinary that we do them without being aware of it. It becomes second nature because we’ve done them so long and so well.

That’s what I want Bible reading to be. Something done on such a regular basis that we’d miss being able to do it. Should a Bible not be available, verses would come to mind when you needed them.

Of course, there are so many ways of having a Bible handy, down to having them on smartphones, e-readers, tablets and the ever handy printed page, that being without one would be strange!

Back to that walk for a moment.  It wasn’t necessary to be attentive to each toe, each foot, each … etc. Living by biblical precepts and doctrines come just as easily when they are practiced regularly.  Of course there are some failures when starting out. Find yourself a toddler and watch them.  It’s fun, isn’t it, because we know they’ll get better as they do it more often, learn from their mistakes and become proficient.

Simple, isn’t it? Then, why don’t we do it?

Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD: And thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might. And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart: (Deuteronomy 6:4-6 KJV)

When the children of Israel did this, things went well.  When they didn’t, it showed. Once, during a period of restoral, King Josiah returned to these basics:

And the king stood by a pillar, and made a covenant before the LORD, to walk after the LORD, and to keep his commandments and his testimonies and his statutes with all their heart and all their soul, to perform the words of this covenant that were written in this book. And all the people stood to the covenant. (2 Kings 23:3 KJV)

How is our covenant before the Lord? Do His words come easily from our heart?