Year 4, Day 164: Deuteronomy 13

Theological Commentary: Click Here 

Discipleship Focus: Father, Identity

• Father: This is the pinnacle of the Covenant Triangle.  God is the Father.  He is the creator.  He is love.  Our relationship with the Father is rooted in His love for us.  We get our identity through Him.
• Identity: Our true identity comes from the Father.  Only when our identity comes from God can we be obedient in ways that satisfy our person to our core.

Deuteronomy is absolutely another chapter where the covenant triangle can be seen very clearly.  This chapter is all about beginning with who is in our Up position.  Do we worship the Father?  Or do we let other people lead us away into the worship of other things?  Is our focus in life on looking for the hand of the Father working within us, through us, and in the world around us?  Do we stop and give God the glory when things go well?  When a person around us does an incredible job, do we give God the glory for equipping that person in the first place?  Essentially, this chapter causes us to pause and ask, do we really believe and live as though God is at the source of all life?

But this chapter goes beyond that point as well.  From where does our identity come?  When someone tries to pull us in a direction that is focused on other things besides God, do we follow?  Are we tempted to focus on the desires of our own heart and use God as the emergency backup crutch when things go wrong?  It is so easy to be pulled away from God.  That is all the more reason to make sure that our identity is truly coming from the Father and that we stay obedient to that identity.

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