*Reminder*

"Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength." Deuteronomy 6:5

First of all, can I just say that spelling "Deuteronomy" by memory is quite a difficult task. Even though this particular book of the bible is hard to spell and kind of awkward looking, it's definitely got an important message to share. Over the past couple of days I've really felt the Lord tugging on my heart and reminding me of this verse and how important it is to Him.

Many, many times in my life the Lord has ripped all of my deepest dependencies out from under me. It's usually been a person and where I felt the most confident and secure. Each time was an extremely painful and bloody process, but every time I gained so much more than I lost. I learned how to put the Lord first because I had no other choice, which was so generous and merciful of the Lord to allow. Finding out where my true security lies when all I have left is me and God is one of the most important things I've learned in my life. I wouldn't say that I want it to happen again, but if it comes to that I'd be willing. We are in a good place when our dependency is in God alone. It's easy to feel like we can get our security from people or nice circumstances, but that's not the case. People are imperfect,unpredictable, and unable to give us the security and protection that the Lord wants to give us.

Sometimes I find myself basing how I feel about my day on how the people I care most about have been treating me. I read something today that I really needed to hear concerning this:
"If you let your basic well being depend on another person's behavior, you elevate that person to a position only the Lord should occupy. It is not only displeasing to the Lord, but destructive. Because people are not perfect, your life may come to resemble a roller coaster ride, subject to the mood and whims of other people. Even worse, your intimacy with the Lord may be hindered by your preoccupation with someone else."

I need to be reminded pretty often of these things because when I love people I love them with everything I have. I don't care deeply for many people, but the ones that I do, my entire heart and loyalty is given. This makes it really easy to make people my idol and care more about how they feel about me than the Lord. I know He made my heart to love deeply for a good reason, but I need to make sure I'm using it the way He intended, and not allowing it to be a major cause of footholds in my life.

I'm so glad I was reminded of this tonight because basing how I feel on how other people feel about me can get pretty exhausting. My true security is in the Lord which makes me breathe a sigh of relief because:
1.) I've known God a while now and He is always loving and accepting and 2.) He is never going to leave me, which means He's coming with me after I graduate which is good to know.