Look around you: Everything you see is God’s—the heavens above and beyond, the Earth, and everything on it. But it was your ancestors who God fell in love with; he picked their children—that’s you!—out of all the other peoples. That’s where we are right now. So cut away the thick calluses from your heart and stop being so willfully hardheaded. God, your God, is the God of all gods, he’s the Master of all masters, a God immense and powerful and awesome. He doesn’t play favorites, takes no bribes, makes sure orphans and widows are treated fairly, takes loving care of foreigners by seeing that they get food and clothing.
You must treat foreigners with the same loving care—
remember, you were once foreigners in Egypt.
Reverently respect God, your God, serve him, hold tight to him,
back up your promises with the authority of his name.
He’s your praise! He’s your God!
He did all these tremendous, these staggering things
that you saw with your own eyes."
What else can we say? Paul echoes this in 2 Timothy 1:9 "He has saved us and called us to a holy life – not because of anything we have done but because of his own purpose and grace. This grace was given us in Christ Jesus before the beginning of time,"
We are set apart to love God, to live to honour him, to obey his commands and to serve his people.
With everything we have in us.
This is it. To live a life passionately devoted to the God who loves us so passionately that he sacrificed his son for our sakes. Remember his mighty power and his relentless desire to save us from ourselves. Left to our own devices, how quickly we descend into selfishness and sin when we lose our grip on His Reality.
"Reverently respect God, your God, serve him, hold tight to him,..."
Hold tight
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