Today’s Reading Nehemiah 10-11
Focal Scripture: Nehemiah 10:28-29 “The rest of the people — the priests, Levites, gatekeepers, singers, and temple servants, along with their wives, sons, and daughters, everyone who is able to understand and who has separated themselves from the surrounding peoples to obey the law of God — join with their noble brothers and commit themselves with a sworn oath to follow the law of God given through God’s servant Moses and to obey carefully all the commands, ordinances, and statutes of the Lord our Lord.”
Sometimes you have to separate yourself from people. This is where the story takes us today. The reason the people began to separate themselves from others is because of the law of God. For much of the time in the OT people have been committed to going against the word of the Lord.
Now Nehemiah is showing that making sacrifices to follow God is worth it all. Doing what is expected and commanded from God shows us that our hearts our bent toward pleasing the Lord. In the scripture for the day it’s says commands, ordinances, and statutes were being followed. Which means they desired to obey everything.
So what about you today? Are you being obedient to what the Lord asks? This demonstrates the commitment you have towards your relationship with God. You can talk about serving the Lord or you can be all in.
One of the ways you demonstrate if you are all in is by being obedient to the Lords direction and commands. To often people think that following Christ comes at no cost. However, the Bible teaches that being a believer is submitting yourself to the Lord.
It also means submitting yourself to the teachings of the Bible. This submission also requires us to use our intellect. We must know how to rightly interpret and apply the scripture to our lives. That only comes from study and living in the book.
I encourage you today to read the Bible. It is how we know the character of God. It will give us good theology. It will make us intelligent believers. Never buy the lie that our faith should be shallow. God wants us to have a deep faith.
Tomorrow I plan to read Nehemiah 12-13
