The Word Of God Penetrates The Deep Areas Of The Heart

⁶ These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. ⁷ Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.

Heart and Honor

Every disciple of Christ should be filling their mind and their heart with the word of God:

¹ Blessed is the one
who does not walk in step with the wicked
or stand in the way that sinners take
or sit in the company of mockers,
² but whose delight is in the law of the Lord,
and who meditates on his law day and night.

Our minds have a tendency to be filled with something.  When we give our lives to Christ, we now have the opportunity to choose what we can fill our minds with.  The world, the flesh, and the devil are constantly offering suggestions on what we should use to fill our minds and hearts.  But God says we should be filling them with His law.  Additionally, we are to fill our minds with the following:

Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy-think about such things.

Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things.

By filling our minds with the things of God – His law and the affairs of Heaven, we crowd out the thoughts that compete with the will and ways of God.  This should be a priority for disciples of Christ, for we cannot effectively train our minds to intercept and process as garbage that which deserves such a fate without having the ability to recognize what is good for us and what will cause us problems:

We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.

Teach and Train

In addition to doing this for ourselves, we are to impart the knowledge of God – God’s holy word – to our children.  We are to impress upon our children the importance of following God’s law.  We are to impress upon them value of God’s law.  We are to impress upon them the holiness of God’s law by showing through OUR actions and words the very principles that we espouse.  Children learn more from our actions than from our words.  Even when they appear to be ignoring us, they are most carefully watching us to see if we practice what we preach.  Children look for hypocrisy to validate the truth.  Teach them not only with words, but with works.

Talk and Travel

Not only should we be talking to our children about the law of God when we are at our home, but also when we travel.  In the West, there is a movement by certain individuals to try to restrict the ability of people to practice their religion only in the home and their place of worship.  They believe that people should not practice it anywhere else, because it might “offend” someone.  But Jesus said:

Blessed is anyone who does not stumble on account of me.

If we limit our teaching to the home, we will not have the opportunity to fully impart our wisdom to our children.  “Teachable Moments” arise in everyday life, and it is important to impart the wisdom of God to our children at all times.  We can only do this if we take the time to teach them wherever we may be.

Sleep and Stand

God’s word is so important that we should even take the time to teach it to our children when we are getting ready to sleep, and when we first rise.  There is no time that we shouldn’t be imparting the wisdom of God to our children.  When we don’t CONSISTENTLY teach our children, their minds wander to the things of this world.  God implores parents to teach their children His laws during EVERY WAKING MOMENT.  To do otherwise is to invite other influences into their lives that could harm them.  Children observe EVERYTHING, so rather than let the world, the flesh, and the devil train them, take the time and effort to train them up in the law of God.

A Qualifying Question

Parents, let’s ask a question:  Am I training up my child(ren) in the way that they should go?

A short prayer of preparation:

Father in Heaven, I love you and adore You.  Your law is beautiful to behold.  When it is practiced, great righteousness proceeds from the ones who adhere to it.  Father, You have made it plain to us that we cannot keep Your law the way that we should.  Thank You for Your Son, Jesus Christ, who died on the cross for my sins and the sins of the world.  Thank You for your law, to teach me that I cannot please You without accepting Jesus’ sacrifice for my sin.  And thank You for the opportunity to speak into the lives of others about Your love and grace, and Your holiness and righteousness.  Father, help me to mindful of what I do every waking moment that I would honor and glorify You in every thought, word, and deed.  This I ask in Jesus’ Name, Amen.

Want more?  Why not try A. B. Simpson or A. W. Tozer?