Dave's Diary

Daily Readings: Nehemiah 10 and Psalm 22

Faithfulness to God and our worship of God are all-of-life matters. That’s why, as the Israelites renewed their Covenant with God (see Nehemiah 9:38) and sealed it formally, they made it very clear that they were taking upon themselves certain very specific obligations in a number of areas of their lives.

They took upon themselves the obligation to ensure that they and their children remained within God’s boundaries for their marriages (v.30), for their business dealings (v.31) and for their contributions to the ongoing worship at the Temple (v.32-39). These boundaries were very detailed and the people were very specific about their commitment to keep within them, because they knew that God had been very specific about how He should be worshipped. They bound themselves by a solemn oath to “follow the Law of God given through Moses the servant of God and to obey carefully all the commands, regulations and decrees of the LORD our Lord” (v.29). All of this was motivated by a deep commitment to “not neglect the house of our God” (v.39).

But notice that their commitment to worship God was a lifestyle commitment. It impacted on all areas of their lives, and not just what we might think of as “spiritual”. May we realise today that everything we do forms part of our worship (or otherwise) of the Lord. How we handle relationships, our daily work and our finances are all ways we can worship the LORD our God.

Holy Spirit, empower my life to be a song of worship to my Lord! May my relationships, work, finances and social interactions all harmonise in a beautiful melody of praise to my King. Amen.