Patterns

⁴ "Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one.^{[a] 5} Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. ⁶ These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. ⁷ 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. ⁸ Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. ⁹ Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates." 


God stands before with us today. And God asks to have an impact on our lives. An impact that can shake the world. An impact of love. And not just the love that lasts a short time.

Love.

Love that shapes who we are. Love that shapes who we will become. Love that shapes us. Forever.


Tomorrow we will go to church. Tomorrow we will continue in a pattern that shapes our living. The pattern of rushing to get the door on time. The pattern of singing the songs but not listening to the words we are singing. The pattern of reading announcements during the sermon. The pattern of doing, but not living.

God asks to have an impact on our lives. An impact so that we want to worship him every day of our lives. An impact so that our love for him will be evident in everything we do.

And for so many of us, we reserve our time with God, our time to tell him how much we love him to Sunday.

And yet, for so many of us, Sunday can easily become a pattern, much like that second cup of coffee or the perusing of the front page news.

If we are to love God with all our heart, with all our strength, and with all our mind, this means giving him our best on Sunday. Singing, listening, communing with God, for that hour once a week.

And.

It means continuing that hour for the whole week. Communing with God outside of worship. Singing, listening, reading, praying with God. Shaping our lives around God and our love for God.

And so, as we worship tomorrow, allow the grace of that hour to fill you. Allow God to work within you that one hour. And pray, that that grace and that love, that praise and that prayer can continue not just to the narthex or the parking lot, but to your home, your gym, your office place and your school.

Allow a love for God and fellowship with God fill you. And have an impact on you. God wants to shape you. God wants to live within you. And God wants you to love him. And it starts with patterns.