A Reorientation to Christ

“Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.” Deuteronomy‬ ‭6‬:‭4‬-‭5‬

If you have stumbled across this blog, welcome! Furthermore, if you are reading these words I invite you to reflect on them and consider what they mean and why they were important to the Israelites then and why they are important to you today. If you are a Christian, someone who says that Jesus is God, died for your sins and has resurrected, these words are everything. They’re a calling to continuously orient and reorient yourself back towards Christ.

Moses commanded the Israelites after God freed them from slavery in Egypt to live God with everything they had and they were supposed to say this prayer multiple times a day. This command was for the good of the Israelites. God was teaching them that without him nothing exists and works as it should, especially the human heart. God knew as did Moses, that the Israelites wanted to do what was “right” to them. This type of thinking and behavior often led to great atrocities, evil and broken relationships.

Americans as a people group and culture are not that dissimilar from the ancient Israelites. We value independence, autonomy and deciding what is right for us; even as Christians this ideology has seeped into our theology. Unfortunately, our desire for freedom leads us into a place of pain and suffering and because our theology is undeveloped we get out of alignment with God.

The same call and command that was on the Israelites in Deut 6 is still just as relevant today as it was then, but we can see the promises and love of God wrapped up and fulfilled in the person and work of Jesus Christ. Daily we intentionally and unintentionally become untethered from Christ, because despite being saved and sanctified we are still living with brokenness and the desire to do our own things is very high. When considering any issue in our lives, the state of the world, etc it we must look at the words of Jesus in Matt 6:33 “seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things will be added to you” This needs to be the first place we start. Before solving any problem, anxiety, depression, family/marital issues, substance abuse, financial issues…consider what it means to be in proper alignment with Christ.

In Him

Christian Bringolf MA LMHC