Sunday Devotional

Max is a little dog but he’s got a big heart, and he can be pretty tenacious. I learned this watching him play with my son. Max has a braided toy with fringes on the end that he likes to chase. He never tires of having someone throw it across the room so he can retrieve it. He brings the toy back and lays it at our feet, then stares up expectantly until one of us throws it again.

We were sitting in front of the TV one night, and my son had been doing this for almost an hour. Somehow, I lost track of when he stopped until he whispered, “Mom, look at this.”

I glanced over to see him sitting in a chair, his arm stretched to the floor. In his hand he held the rag, but attached to the other end was Max. Unwillingly to let go of his end, Max had fallen asleep with the rag clenched tightly between his teeth.

“He’s been like this for almost ten minutes,” my son said.

Now that’s tenacity, and it taught me something about my walk with God.

“Love the Lord your God. . . .with all your strength.” (NKJV)

I realize that it isn’t my puny strength that keeps me firmly in the will of God. It isn’t even my faith and spiritual maturity that keeps me assured of my place in heaven. However, God has asked me to love Him with all of my strength, kind of like Max holding on to one end of that rag with all of his might. It sounds like an easy task, but it’s not. Still, I can rest assured because holding on to the other end? Well, you get the idea.

Luke 10:25-28 (New King James Version)

25 And behold, a certain lawyer stood up and tested Him, saying, “Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?”

26 He said to him, “What is written in the law? What is your reading of it?”

27 So he answered and said, “ ‘You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind,’ and ‘your neighbor as yourself.’”

28 And He said to him, “You have answered rightly; do this and you will live.”