Deuteronomy 23:14; NASB
Since the Lord your God walks in the midst of your camp to save you and to defeat your enemies before you, your camp must be holy; so He must not see anything indecent among you or He will turn away from you. How do you feel about friends coming over to the house to visit? Or maybe when a family gathering is at your place? I have split emotions. Although I know I will enjoy the time I spend with the guests, I also know what it means that people are coming over: It’s time to clean the house. Right? You have to make it look clean, like you live in a spotless house all the time and keep it clean all the time. Oh, all the effort we put into making our houses look clean for guests, so they don’t realize how messy we really are. Yes, I know…some of you keep your house clean all the time….great for you; the rest of us might struggle with that a little bit. But what if we lived everyday as though people were coming over, and kept the house clean everyday. It’s an interesting passage in Deuteronomy 23. Moses is relaying God’s Word of how Israel needs to live. And how is that? Live in holiness, in righteousness. Why? Because the Lord your God walks in the midst of your camp. Now think about that. Do you ever consider the Lord walking through the midst of your house? As you cook in the kitchen, he is walking through smelling the great aromas (or the burnt ones). As you sit down to watch TV, he is walking through the living room watching that show with you. As you yell out that curse word as something heavy drops on your foot….well, you get the idea, right? How might our houses and home lives look different if we lived out the idea that God is walking in the midst of our house? What changes would you want to make? What would you want to hide (heads up: you can’t hide anything from God)? Understand, when we choose to follow God, we choose not just salvation and eternal life (yay), but we also choose to surrender our lives to Him and follow His ways with all our hearts. That’s what the “your camp must be holy” means. We are called to be holy as God is holy (1 Peter 1:16). We are called to leave behind sin and live for righteousness (Romans 6:1-2; Colossians 1:10, 2:6; 1 Thessalonians 2:12). Our camp, our home, needs to be holy because the Lord God walks in the midst of it. That’s a huge task and a big ask. And it takes time to change old habits. That’s ok. Be patient, but be intentional to press on towards the things God is calling you to. And He will guide and strengthen you for every step. But I want you to notice the “why” in this passage. Not just why keep the camp holy. The bigger question we should be asking, why is God walking in the midst of our camps and homes? To save you and defeat your enemies. Let that sink in for a minute. To save you. Deliver you. Rescue you. Give you a solid place to plant your feet. And to defeat your enemies. God. Fighting for you. That’s pretty awesome if you ask me. So the question is, if God is doing that much for us, why wouldn’t we have our homes in a state of cleanliness and righteousness? Why wouldn’t we find the greatest joy in having the God who saves us and fights for us walking in the midst of our homes? The devil is really good at making distractions and sin look really good and satisfying. But none of it is worth missing out on God in the midst of our homes. So take a quick look. Come up with a list. Where do you need to start in getting your home, your life cleaned up? Certainly there are changes we all can make to make our homes more God appropriate. And probably some BIG changes. My advice, start with prayer. And then, start with the small things. Gain some victories. See little piles get cleaned up and then the big things won’t seem so unchangeable. Maybe it all starts with a simple, daily prayer: “Lord, thank you for walking in the midst of my life and my home; help me to find the greatest joy and contentment in Your presence over anything else.” Blessings to you and your family as you make your camp, your home, holy as the Lord walks in the midst of you, saving you and defeating your enemies. -Pastor Brian
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