Fix these words

I love what God said to the Israelites in Deuteronomy 11:17 – 18: “Fix these words of mine in your hearts and minds; tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Teach them to your children, talking about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.” I wonder how seriously we take the Word of God. The Lord says he wants His Words fixed in our minds. Paul wrote, “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect” (Rom 12: 2). The moment we came to faith, our minds needed a complete overhaul, a deep clean. The only thing that can effectively do that is the words of Scripture. We need to read it, study it, meditate on it, wrestle with it, chew it over and over, remember it, pray it, apply it. We are also called to fix God’s word in our hearts. He wants us to desire it, to love it, to want it more than anything else, to find joy in it, to know it’s hope and peace. “Fix these words of mine in your hearts and minds”. Then tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. For thousands of years Jewish believers have worn phylacteries – small leather boxes worn on the arm and forehead containing texts from the Torah – the first 5 books of our Old Testament. What do you think we can do, with today’s technology to keep our precious Scriptures nearby, before us, around us, on us? Then we are to teach God’s Words and talk about them. To our kids, to our loved ones. Not simply reciting them, but discussing them, debating them, asking, hearing, listening, exploring their meaning. Agreeing. Disagreeing. Learning from each other. Paul encouraged the Ephesian believers to “speak to one another with psalms, hymns and spiritual songs” (Eph 5: 19). We are do this in our homes, we can do this when we walk along the road, when we are travelling together our cars, as we wait at the school gate, when we are shooting the breeze with a beer in hand. And we are fix His words when the conversation is just between Him and you. When you are alone with God. When there is no-one around to distract you. When only He can hear your thoughts. The last thing in your head before you fall asleep and the first when you wake and get up. “Fix these words of mine in your hearts and minds; tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Teach them to your children, talking about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.”