The Greatest Commandment
When I was a girl, anyone in the house who woke up in a bad mood was said to have gotten up on the wrong side of the bed.
Apparently, that made a lasting impression on me, because a few days ago I was tempted to get up on the right side of the bed (instead of the normal left). I actually stopped myself in the process of getting out of the bed and considered whether it was okay to get up on the wrong side and if that was risky.
(For the record, I did, and it was fine.)
But it struck me as curious how we hide concepts in our hearts and actions, ones that we carefully and regularly follow without conscious thought. Somehow or another we have trained ourselves to do these things.
In Deuteronomy 6:4 - 5 the greatest commandment is discussed. It is to love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, and strength.
Verse 7 says to repeat these words to your children, to talk about them when you sit and when you walk, when you lie down and when you get up. When I read those verses, I feel like the point is to make talking and thinking about God so frequent that it becomes a part of your natural routine. Walking around, we think and talk about God. When we sit down we think about God. When we lie down and when we wake up, we think about God and our love for him.
But why does He command us to do that?
In Phillippians 4:8, scripture tells us to think about and to dwell on things that are true, honorable, just, pure, lovely, and praise-worthy. That verse isn’t telling us to simply think happy thoughts, instead it describes Jesus.
It is mirroring the verses in Deutoronomy. Verse 9 continues, “Do what you have learned and received and heard from me, and seen in me, and the God of peace will be with you.”
God wants us to focus on him and his truth and character. Psalms 19 describes God and scripture as perfect, renewing, trustworthy, radiant, pure, enduring forever… When we see and know and believe in God we trust him. When we trust him we have peace.
God wants us to think and learn and talk about him constantly because he wants us to be in awe of him and he wants us to rest in the knowledge that in all his glory and majesty, he also loves and knows us personally. He wants to give us peace and confidence in the security he offers in salvation and forgiveness. He wants us to consider him in all our actions and decisions. He wants our minds to rest on him and our actions to reflect him. He wants us to know him so well that before we get up on the wrong side of the bed we check ourselves to make sure we are following him.
Let’s think of him as our feet touch the floor each moment—no matter which side of the bed we’re on.