This day the Lord your God commands you to do these statutes and rules. You shall therefore be careful to do them with all your heart and with all your soul.
– Deuteronomy 26:16
This is language we see all throughout Deuteronomy at different points. I really just want to camp out today, lead us to pray today according to this phrase, “Be careful.” So verse 16 says God is giving you commands, statutes, and rules. Therefore, you shall be careful to do them. Be careful with all your heart, with all your soul.
Deuteronomy 26:16 teaches us the importance of being careful in obedience.
And I just want to encourage you with those two words today. “Be careful.” If we are not careful, we will turn aside from God’s commands, statutes, and rules. This is our sinful nature that we still have in this world, that one day we’re going to be free of. We won’t have to be careful about anything. We’re just going to enjoy God without any wrong desires, any wrong thoughts, even the possibility of those things, any wrong actions or words. We’re just going to live in perfect righteousness. Oh, I can’t wait for that day.
But it’s not today, and this fallen world with our fallen nature in the flesh, we must be careful today. So be careful with what you think, and obviously be careful with what you put into your mind. Be careful with what you desire and with every word you say. And be careful with everything you do. Be alert, be on guard. We live in the middle of spiritual war. There is an adversary today who wants to destroy your life. He wants to destroy your mind, your heart, he wants to destroy your relationships. He is active today, so be careful in all you do.
Deuteronomy 26:16 pictures a life fully surrendered to God’s will.
Oh God, please help us, each one of us, by the power of your Spirit in us, to be alert today, to be careful. To obey you, to walk with you, to honor you, to glorify you with every single detail in our lives. God, help us to be careful people, with all our heart, with all our soul, because we know that life is found in you. We want to honor, obey, glorify you, and experience the joy, the peace, the hope, the life, the everything that is found in you. God, help us to be careful not to believe lies from the adversary today. Lord, help us to be careful to love you with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength, and be careful to love our neighbors as ourselves. God, please help us to be careful today.
And God, help us to be careful we pray to look for opportunities to share the gospel today, to lead other people to life and you today. We know that’s one of your commands to us, to go and make disciples of all the nations. God, help us to be careful to do that. Help us to be careful to do that right where we live and all around the world.
Prayer for the Bihari People
God, we pray for the Bihari people, oh God, of South Asia. Almost a million of them don’t know the gospel. Lord, we pray, please help your church, help us as your people to be careful, intentional today, to work, to spread the gospel to people who’ve never heard it. God, we pray for the salvation of the Bihari people, and we pray for our carefulness toward that end.
Oh God, help us to be careful not to live according to the purposes of this world, but to live according to your Great Commission, to make disciples of all the nations. Help us to be careful in our lives as your church to obey all of your Word, today, tomorrow, until the day when our sanctification is complete. We pray this in Jesus’ name, according to your Word in Deuteronomy 26:16. Amen.
David Platt serves as a Lead Pastor for McLean Bible Church. He is also the Founder of Radical, an organization that makes Jesus known among the nations.
David received his B.A. from the University of Georgia and M.Div., Th.M., and Ph.D. from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary. Some of his published works include Radical, Radical Together, Follow Me, Counter Culture, Something Needs to Change, Don’t Hold Back, and How to Read the Bible.
He lives in the Washington, D.C. metro area with his wife and children.
