“Let love and faithfulness never leave you; bind them around your neck, write them on the tablet of your heart. Then you will win favor and a good name in the sight of God and man.” (Proverbs 3:3-4)
It’s too easy to just nod along with your pastor when he’s breaking down truth from God’s Word: “Yup, I believe that. What’s for lunch?”
It’s much harder to cross over to, “Now, what am I going to do about it?”
In today’s passage, the father tells his son – and God tells us – to make an absolute, unbreakable commitment to “love and faithfulness,” to remembering and obeying God’s instructions because you love him and you’ve promised.
How committed? He tells us to tie love and faithfulness around our necks and tattoo them on our hearts. In other words, make them your permanent attitude and motivation.
The payoff for living that way: You’ll gain the respect of God and the people in your life.
Think: You can’t really tattoo your heart, but how could you make your commitment to love God and to follow him faithfully in Christ more permanent in your life? What would keep you from doing that?
Pray: Ask God to help you to make your love for him and your faithfulness to follow his direction more and more permanent.
Do: Make a quick list of three things you could do this week to keep God’s Word (maybe Proverbs 3:5-6?) right in front of you as much as possible so you can’t forget it.