Spiritual Inventory
by pastor Brenda El-Talabani
Each of these devotional blogs entries is meant to be read on your own or if you have family or friends you live with, to be read together aloud. A suggestion is to do this after you have dinner around the table together. At the conclusion, please spend time in personal reflection or in sharing with one another your answers to the questions at the end. Be sure to conclude with prayer.
Read Deuteronomy 6:1-9
“Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.” Deuteronomy 6:5-9
“Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength” is a familiar scripture verse. There are several songs I can think of that use this verse to help us know how to love God. However, verses 6-9 are not so commonly heard, but is so important if we want to be able to follow what verse 5 teaches us. This is God’s plan for learning about Jesus and the Christian faith. This clearly tells us that there needs to be Biblical, spiritual learning about God in the home. This verse applies to everyone, with or without children in the home. The church building is not to be the only place of learning from the Bible and God’s plan for us as believers.
I challenge you while you are spending time at home to come up with a plan that would work for your home. Maybe setting aside a time to talk together about when God was present with you today. Maybe you could call someone to talk with if you are not currently with your family. Talk about verses that would be helpful in the situations of your day. Use symbols as reminders of our need to turn to God–maybe a Bible in a center part of your house, a cross, or a picture of Jesus where it is visible to everyone. Write or print out verses that apply to you and your family to help you make spiritual memories at home. Writing the commandments of God on the doorframes and gates of your house may not be practical, yet I am sure we could each come up with some creative ways to put God’s word where we read it often.
This is going to be a memorable time in all of our lives, for various reasons, good and bad, but memories nevertheless. Let one of the best memories be that you took a spiritual inventory of your home, and set a plan in place to follow the above verses.
Take time for prayer to talk with God
Reflect with someone else or on your own:
1. Take a spiritual inventory of your home. Is there Spiritual teaching and learning happening in my home?
2. Make a plan for how you/your family can follow God’s plan as listed in Deuteronomy 6:5-9.
3. Memorize the scriptures that you have posted in your home.
