7 April

The psalmist speaks of an inner thirst: ‘As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you’ (v.1). He continues, ‘My inner self thirsts for God’ (v.2, AMP).

Only God himself can satisfy this thirst. Knowledge about God will not satisfy your inner thirst. Cry out for God’s presence. Meet with God (v.2) and pour out your soul (v.4).

A clean heart and conscience is far more important than clean hands. What goes on in your heart and thoughts really matters. Your eyes are key – they are the gate to the inner life. That is why what you look at matters so much. You let things into your inner life through your eyes. Your eyes also reflect what is going on in your heart.

Jesus calls you to fill your inner being with light: ‘Your eye is a lamp, lighting up your whole body. If you live wide-eyed in wonder and belief, your body fills up with light. If you live squinty-eyed in greed and distrust, your body is a dank cellar. Keep your eyes open, your lamp burning, so you don’t get musty and murky. Keep your life as well-lighted as your best-lighted room’ (vv.34–36, MSG).

Jesus calls you to an intimate and loving relationship with God – to that secret place, the heart, where true contact with God takes place. He calls you to be clean on the inside, not just on the outside (v.39). It is no good appearing clean outwardly if inside you are full of ‘greed and wickedness’ (v.39).

The focus of the inner life, according to Jesus, is the poor: ‘Give as donations to the poor… and behold, everything is purified and clean for you’ (v.41, AMP). Giving cleanses the heart.

Jesus goes on to say that outward giving in itself is not enough if you neglect ‘justice and the love of God’ (v.42).

As Father Raniero Cantalamessa writes, ‘It would be a mistake to think that insistence on the inner life could harm our energetic commitment to the kingdom and to justice. Far from diminishing the importance of acting for God, interior life lays its foundation and keeps it going.’ 

Jesus warns these religious leaders about wrong attitudes of the heart into which we can so easily fall. These words are a challenge to those of us in any kind of leadership. Jesus warns against:

• Self-importance
  ‘You love the most important seats’ (v.43).
• Love of recognition
  ‘Greetings in the marketplace’ (v.43).
• Hypocrisy
  There is a danger of teaching a standard that we ourselves fail to live up to: ‘You load people down with burdens they can hardly carry and you will not lift one finger to help them’ (v.46).

You are called to this intimate and loving relationship with God. However, there are three warnings given in chapter six:

• The danger of abandoning God because of the surrounding idolatry – ‘do not follow other gods’ (6:14)
  There is the temptation to fit in with the surrounding culture and adopt the beliefs of the people around us. However, God wants you to remain faithful to him rather than merely seeking to fit in with those around you. (Deuteronomy chapter 7 expands on this.)
• The danger of doubting God because of hardship – ‘do not test the Lord’ (6:16)
  When hardship comes, the temptation is to think that God no longer cares about you, but you need to hold on to the faithfulness and word of God. (Deuteronomy 8:1–5 unpacks this challenge further.)
  
  God allows you to go through tests and trials so you can learn by experience that doing things his way is the best way. If you will not serve and worship him in the hard times of life (the valleys), you may not consistently serve and worship him in the good times (the mountain tops). Remember that mountain tops encourage you, but valleys mature you.
• The danger of forgetting God because of affluence – ‘do not forget the Lord’ (6:12)
  In the enjoyment of the gift, you can sometimes forget the giver. (Deuteronomy 8:6–20 expands on this.)

Underlying these three warnings is the realisation that material things alone – whether personal possessions or ‘idols’ – do not satisfy: ‘Human beings do not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord’ (8:3).

Jesus quoted this verse when he was being tempted in the desert by the devil to satisfy his physical hunger in the wrong way. His response to the devil was that it is the inner life – the inner hunger – that is far more important than the material things. This inner hunger can only be satisfied by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord.

Whether you are materially well-off or not, the focus of your life should be on the inner life which alone can satisfy the deep inner longing which God has put in every human heart.

Deuteronomy 8:12 wealth

when you eat and are satisfied, when you build fine houses and settle down, 13 and when your herds and flocks grow large and your silver and gold increase and all you have is multiplied, 14 then your heart will become proud and you will forget the Lord your God,