FAITH CAPSULE: What are you holding back from God?

Deuteronomy 6

All that matters in our celebration is to fear God. God treasures it when we fear Him. To fear Him is to love Him. The fear of God is the reason and the purpose of commandment. Deuteronomy 6:1-3 states it, “Now this is the commandment, and these are the statutes and judgments which the LORD your God has commanded to teach you, that you may observe them in the land which you are crossing over to possess,  that you may fear the LORD your God…” God wants to be feared. Fearing a jealous God is obeying Him. Obeying God is giving God the attention which He deserves. Fearing God is to love Him. Encased in loving God is obeying all His commands. Failure to obey God is an evidence of lack of fear and the absence of loving Him. It is written, “You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength.” (Deuteronomy 6:5) God’s command does not ask for what cannot be done.
The book of 1Timothy 1:5-6 also points out the purpose of commandment, “Now the purpose of the commandment is love from a pure heart, from a good conscience, and from sincere faith, from which some, having strayed, have turned aside to idle talk.” God simply demands for us to love Him with all our heart, with all our soul, and with all our strength.

Abraham is one who feared God with all his heart, with all his soul, and with all his strength. Abraham was able to seek God by keeping the way of God. It demands loving God with all heart to rise and depart to a strange land and not hold back. Also, at age seventy five leaving behind a comfort environment, with no child, is a demonstration of not withholding self from God. Abraham, after having fully complied with God’s command by presenting Isaac for burnt offering, God testified to Abrahams fear. At the time he was to slaughter Isaac for the offering, the Angel of the Lord called on Abraham stating, “Do not lay your hand on the lad, or do anything to him; for now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from Me.” (Genesis 22:12) God declared and decorated Abraham when He pointed it out that Abraham feared Him by not withholding his only son from Him. Abraham could not hold back from God when he gave it all to God. What are you holding back from God? Holding onto God’s blessing and not able to release back to God is holding to blessing instead of holding to the one who blesses.
Ecclesiastes says it all, “Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God and keep His commandment, for this is man’s all.” (Ecclesiastes 12:13)

Prayer for today: Ask for the grace to keep His commands.