Therefore, you shall lay up these words of mine in your heart and in your soul, and bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall teach them to your children, speaking of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up. And you shall write them on your doorposts of your house and on your gates, that your days and the days of your children may be multiplied in the land of which the LORD swore your fathers to give them, like the days of the heavens above the earth.     Deuteronomy 11:18-21 NKJV

We have documents or information that is so important to us that we memorize it. If it is written, we may even keep it somewhere handy where we can refer to it from time to time. These are things we want to always be mindful of, and we want to be sure we have access to this information.

In the book of Deuteronomy, Moses repeatedly tells the Israelites to obey God’s commands. He repeatedly stresses to them that their obedience will bring blessings. He also reminds them that their disobedience will bring God’s wrath and His discipline upon them.

Many of us can call to mind something we read on social media or heard on the news, but can you recall the Ten Commandments? In all honesty, I don’t know that I could recite all ten of them right now.

What God expects of us is the most important thing for us to keep on our minds. When I worked in probation and parole, we would do intake. This was where people came in after being sentenced to probation in court or being paroled from prison. There was a long list of rules they had to follow to avoid having their probation or parole revoked. Revocation meant a loss of freedom and being placed in or returned to prison. I always stressed to them to keep this list of rules handy. Their freedom depended on their compliance or obedience.

God gives us free will. We can choose to obey or disobey Him. Our eternal life depends on what we choose. We can lose our freedom when we find ourselves in bondage to sin. So just like the person who has been convicted of a crime, we can lose our freedom, but more importantly, we could spend eternity in hell.

When God sentences us to hell, there is no early release or parole. It’s for eternity.

We are told in Proverbs 3:5-6 to trust in the Lord with all our heart and not rely on our own understanding; think about Him in all our ways, and He will guide us on the right paths. Moses is telling them to always be mindful of God’s commands. They are to write them on places where they will see them frequently. They are to teach them to their children and discuss them often. He ends by telling them that this will help them to live a long time in the land God has promised to them, as long as the heavens are above the earth.

If you want to be free, let go of the sin that binds you. Trust in the Lord. Obey His commands. We should always be mindful of God’s commands. We should always be careful to obey them.

It could mean the difference between us spending an eternity in heaven or an eternity in hell. It’s that important.

Have a great day!