Tie A String Around Your Finger

Over the last decades it's been said, "Tie a string around your finger so that you won't forget to keep that commitment, etc." I thought about the concept as I studied John Wesley's Commentary on Deuteronomy chapter six. Verses five through nine begin, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength. And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates."

John Wesley maintains, "Thou shalt bind them - Thou shalt give all diligence, and use all means to keep them in thy remebrance..." Why do we have to go to great lengths to focus on the desires of God for our lives and those lives that surround us? Why is it that mankind is so easily distracted? Why is it so easy to focus on everything else in this busy world?

I think the answer lies in verse five, "Love the Lord your God with all your heart...." Loving the Father, Creator, Redeemer, Shepherd, and Returning King is a breathtaking and, almost overwhelming, experience. But, this is what He wants of us. In Revelations 2: 4 God speaks through John the Revelator with warning voice, "Nevertheless I have this against you, that you have left your first love."

True, it requires targeted effort on our part to place at bay the endless requests upon our time and energy. If our concentration is loving Our Savior above all things maybe we won't have to tie that string around our finger so often. Then, the diligence to teach and talk of His ways will be on the tip of the tongue and in the bounce of our steps of action.