- follow the Lord your God and Him alone
- revere (honour and respect) Him
- obey Him (and keep His commands)
- serve Him
- and hold fast to Him
I think it's that last factor on the list that really places us in the realm of relationship, rather than religion. Anyone can follow rules; we can obey and serve an employer that we have no friendship with; we can revere and admire a celebrity that we've never even met. But we can only "hold fast" to someone that we care about and whose friendship we don't want to let go of.
I remember, when I was leaving South Africa in 2007, that Song of Songs 3:4 was very meaningful to me. When the girl speaks of her Beloved, she calls him, "the one my heart loves" and when she searches for him and finds him, she says, "I held on to him and would not let him go." I was in a season of transition where I had lost many things, and was recognising that there were others I would need to let go of. But the one thing I could never lose, the one thing that would go with me wherever I went, and the one thing that I wanted to hold on to more than anything else in the world was my love relationship with Jesus.
Amidst good times and bad, how firmly are we holding on to Him? Is He more precious to us than work, than other people, than things… ? As true Christians, it's second best for us simply to obey His commands (even though Jesus did say, "If you love me, you will obey my teaching." John 14:23) As Moses told the Israelites thousands of years ago, we also need to "hold on" to God. The Hebrew verb in Songs 3: 4 is áchaz - which translates the idea of clinging tightly to someone or something. In Deuteronomy 13:4, it's even more active: the verb dábaq is not only about holding on to what you already have, but also has the sense of "to pursue hard" and to grasp hold of even more. I want to pursue God in that sort of way, and hold on tightly to my relationship with Him.
In the previous post (see below) I was reflecting on the importance of holding on to joy. Surely the most important aspect of this is our holding on to God Himself, because the Bible tells us that there is fullness of joy in His presence and that His joy will be our strength.
I remember, when I was leaving South Africa in 2007, that Song of Songs 3:4 was very meaningful to me. When the girl speaks of her Beloved, she calls him, "the one my heart loves" and when she searches for him and finds him, she says, "I held on to him and would not let him go." I was in a season of transition where I had lost many things, and was recognising that there were others I would need to let go of. But the one thing I could never lose, the one thing that would go with me wherever I went, and the one thing that I wanted to hold on to more than anything else in the world was my love relationship with Jesus.
In the previous post (see below) I was reflecting on the importance of holding on to joy. Surely the most important aspect of this is our holding on to God Himself, because the Bible tells us that there is fullness of joy in His presence and that His joy will be our strength.
