the Week of Proper 8 / Ordinary 13
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Daily Devotionals
Voice of the Lord
You make me know the path of life (Psalm 16:11).
Lechayyim! Have you ever considered the meaning of this blessing? Chayyim means "life" and le means "to." So lechayyim means "to life!" It's amazing that this would be the blessing of our people, for no other people has been so persecuted and crushed. No other people has known so thoroughly the meaning of death, and yet the miracle is ...we live, for God chose us to be his witness.
We must learn the blessing of being a people "to life." It's not enough for us to just be "of life." We must be lechayyim—"to life." We must always choose those things that are "to life," and reject those things that are not "to life." Things like bitterness, self-pity, lust, hopelessness, unforgiveness, and selfishness are not lechayyim; they're not "to life," but "to death." Also, coldness and fear, not loving your wife or husband, worldliness, possessiveness, greed, pride, gossip, and negative words are all "to death."
But we are called to be lechayyim! So we must choose to follow only what is "to life." Celebrate the life of God and everything related to it. God is the God of life and his people are a people of life. Live a life that says in word, deed and spirit, "To life! To life! Lechayyim!"
...choose the way of life over the way of death.
JC
The Voice of the Lord, Copyright © 1998 by the Lewis and Harriet Lederer Foundation, Inc. Published by Messianic Jewish Publishers, Distributed by Messianic Jewish Resources, www.messianicjewish.net. All rights reserved. Used by permission. No part of this article may be reproduced in print or on the web, or transmitted in any form, without the written permission of the publisher.
