Because You Saved Me From Myself

“And behold, now I bring the first of the fruit of the ground, which you, O LORD, have given me.” And you shall set it down before the LORD your God and worship before the LORD your God. Deuteronomy 26:10

My wife and I recently watched one of those action movies in which the hero of the story spared the life of an adversary, who in turn pledged himself to the hero. Because you saved me, my life is yours. I am now your servant. The one who was saved from certain death recognized that every breath he took from that moment on was possible only because the hero had mercy on him. He appropriately recognized that he owed the rest of his life to his savior.

Though my life isn’t as dramatic as an action movie, I feel the same way. Every morning, upon awaking, my first thought is this – Thank you God for saving me from myself. Thank you for renewal, regeneration, resurrection, and recovery. I owe you my life. Today I desire to respond appropriately by living for you. I do it far from perfectly, but because God saved me from the disaster of myself, I now must abandon my way to follow his. If I return to the pride and selfishness of following me, I defile and forget what God has done for me. In doing so, I go back to the misery and calamity of my way. I like my new life though. So today, and every day, I will continue to make a genuine attempt to respond in the only appropriate manner for one who’s been saved by God.

This is the message of today’s passage. In it, as God led his people into the promised land, he reminded them that he’d brought them out of Egyptian slavery to a new land of their own. Remember what I’ve done for you and respond appropriately (my paraphrase). As God saved the Israelites, they owed allegiance to him and were to live accordingly.

One doesn’t have to have been addicted to drugs to understand this. Unfortunately, many Christians still live in their proverbial Egypt, enslaved to the old life, refusing to follow God to the new one. I still find myself there sometimes, not addicted to drugs, but still wallowing in the mire of following my way. That is why I must daily remind myself of what he’s done for me and that is why I must daily choose the only appropriate response. Because you saved me from myself, my life is yours. Now I must live for you.