The Daily Walk | 06.24.2026 | Nancy Williams | Matthew 22:36-40

36 “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” 37 And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. 38 This is the great and first commandment. 39 And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. 40 On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”

Transcript

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Hi everyone, it's Nancy with your Wednesday Daily Walk. As we read Nehemiah chapter 9, we saw where God's children acknowledged they had disobeyed his commandments. They had turned their backs on him, but they had come to a place of acknowledging their sin and they wanted to turn their hearts back to God. As we moved into Nehemiah chapter 10, we read about their recommitment to God. Verse 29 of chapter 10 says they quote, entered into a curse and an oath to walk in God's law that was given by Moses, a servant of God, and to observe and do all the commandments of the Lord our God and his rules and his statutes. The chapter goes on to describe what they committed to do, what that recommitment would look like. I've thought some since we read those chapters about recommitment. How sometimes we deliberately turn our backs on God's desires for us and take our lives into our own hands. Other times we can easily and slowly drift off course until something happens and we realize we are far away from God's desires and his commands for our lives. But like the children of Israel, we can turn back to the Lord, confess our sin, and recommit our lives to following Him. That recommitment can be something we do as we begin each day. I think about David's prayer in Psalm 51, which I quote so often in my prayer time with God. Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. So what does that commitment to the Lord look like? The New Testament is clear in many passages about how God desires for us to live in a way that will honor Him. I think we begin with what Jesus said is most important. Matthew records a conversation Jesus had with some religious leaders about the most important commandment. In Matthew chapter 22, beginning in verse 36, we read, Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the law? Jesus replied, Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it. All the law and the prophets hang on these two commandments. So our commitment to the Lord begins there. As Romans 12 references, it's a renewing of our mind, and certainly it's a matter of the heart. And if we draw close to him in prayer and spend time reading his word, he will show us how to live our lives in a way that will honor and serve him. Each day as we commit, he will guide. Amen.