Narrative Lectionary Key Verse for Today
“Keep these words that I am commanding you today in your heart. Recite them to your children and talk about them when you are at home and when you are away, when you lie down and when you rise.”
NL Daily Devotion for Saturday, March 16, 2024
by R. M. Fergus, Clergy Stuff
You have to keep practicing your skills, or you’ll eventually lose them. This is true regardless of your area of expertise, your innate ability, raw talent, or your accumulated wisdom. And it’s just as necessary when it comes to knowledge of scripture and the basic tenets of our faith. We might know on an intellectual level that the great commandment is to love God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength, and to love our neighbors as ourselves. We might even repeat these words regularly, when we are home and away, when we lie down and rise. But it’s not enough to say them. We have to live them.
What that looks like for each of us on a daily basis might vary. For me, it’s about working a disciplined spiritual program of recovery, including daily prayer and meditation. It’s making an effort to be of love and service to everyone I meet in small and big ways. It’s stopping at the end of every day to take stock of how it went, to acknowledge my failings and my successes, and listing out my gratitudes. Do I do this perfectly all the time? No. I just can’t let it slide too often, or I will start to lose the ability to keep God’s words in my heart.
How do I practice keeping God’s words in my heart each day?
