How It Works

You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall . . .  talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. Deuteronomy 6:5-7

An Alcoholics Anonymous meeting usually opens with a reading of “How It Works”, a painfully practical document, outlining what it takes to find recovery. It speaks of honesty, hard work and surrender to God. The steps are not complicated, but they do require radical commitment.

In today’s passage, Moses provided the greatest commandment and our life purpose: We have been made to love God with all that we are. Moses then provided what I see as a How It Works. He did not simply demand that we have an intense emotional feeling for God. Moses insisted that we take God’s word and dwell on it continually. We are to speak of it. We are to think of it. When we rise from our sleep, when we walk through the day, and when lie back down at night, we are to meditate on God, allowing Him to permeate us.

I generally do not try and tell you what to do. I can only tell you what I have done and how this has worked in my life. Every morning, the first thing I do, is to get up and read God’s word. I read until I find the next meaningful passage and then I spend the next 24-hours working on that verse in my mind.

This has not made me perfect. Since I have started doing this, I have made significant and painful life mistakes. To borrow from AA though, We claim spiritual progress rather than spiritual perfection. I have not been made perfect but daily meditating on God’s word is transforming my mind and heart.

If we want transformation, if we long to know God and to love Him more, then we must take in His word and meditate on it day and night. This is how it works.