She came to me teary-eyed, confessing, “I’m distracted by everything in my room, Mommy. I can’t do my schoolwork. I can’t get my chores done.”

Middle daughter, Sadie, age 8, was unable to get herself together. Normally, I was the whip crackin,’ homeschoolin’ mama, but her tears took the scolding right off of my tongue. “Sometimes I need a break, too. Let’s forget those lists and snuggle. Want to?” And we climbed into the bed I was making.

I told Sadie the story of when she was 3 and asked me to tell her stories about when she was little. Because she was still doing the funny things kids do at age 3, when I told her one of them, she’d said, “Well, that’s not funny–I did that yesterday!” We laughed remembering it.

We prayed that God would help her feel him right where she was weak, to help her relax and feel how loved she was—just as she was—by God and by me. After a little while, she said, “I want to do school again.” And she did. She got her work done that day, which was something considering how it had begun.

Sometimes willpower and want-to can’t be muscled up. We’ve got to go to the Source of Love to plug in. This is what today’s passages point to.

Deuteronomy 29-30

It’s not a new promise. It’s the same promise God made way back when with Abraham. It’s the covenant he’s kept with Abe’s children ever since, though they’ve not kept their part of the promise to him, De 29:10-12.

Even so, Moses says God wants to renew this covenant before they enter the land he’s been promising them since they left Egypt. And just in case they’ve forgotten what that covenant is, he reminds them: he promises to be their God. And they promise to be his people who obey him. It’s quite simple really, though Moses spends a lot of pages spelling it out, just to make sure they get it, De 1-30, esp 29:10-12.

After all, his audience has changed–it’s been 40 years since Egypt. Those who were adults in the Great Slave Getaway have died off, and their children are now standing before him. Moses reminds them of their history and gives them the chance to sign-on again as God’s people. It’s time for a fresh start, and God’s offering one, De 29:2-9.

If Moses has said it once, he’s said it a hundred times. God-as-God for them means this: He’s chosen them out of all the people on earth to shower his love and affection on. He rescues them. He provides for them. He protects them. He blesses them beyond their ability to deserve it, De 10:12-11:32; 26:16-19; 28:1-14.

And their part in response to God’s part is to love him first-and-most, to worship him only, to obey what he tells them, because he’s their own God, and he alone knows what’s best for them, De 10:12-13; 28:1-9.

And just in case the worst happens and they forsake him like their parents did, here’s his “You Can’t Completely Fail” plan—no matter where they end up, if they repent and turn back to him, God will restore them to himself and their land again. Considering all he’s done for them and already forgiven, it’s a surprising offer, De 30:1-5.

But maybe it shouldn’t be. It’s not death and destruction that God’s about, after all. While he says quite a lot about how hard life will be without him, he’s not focused on punishment for its own sake. The difficulties they endure for turning away from him are “signposts” and “warnings” designed to bring them back to him, not to punish and be done with them, De 28:45-46 MSG.

God’s focus is on saving, on restoration, on forgiving just for the asking. He’s about abundant living, blessing beyond imagining, wholeness and healing. His heart is to rescue us and bring us home to him where the good life is, no matter how long it takes or what we’ve done, De 30:11-20.

This is hard to believe, especially if you’ve done something really awful. But this is how the father welcomed the prodigal, who wasted half his father’s money in wild living and finally got fed up and went home to work as his servant, Lk 15:11-20.

The father’s been watching and waiting since his son left, so he sees him “a long way off” and runs to meet him. And when he does, he hardly listens to his apology: the father’s too busy getting a party started to celebrate the one who’s finally come home to him, Lk 15:20-24 MSG.

No hard feelings. No questions asked. This is God’s heart for each of us–to make a fresh start, to live a life of joy in his presence. This is what Jesus made possible for us.

But God doesn’t pour out this new life on people who don’t love him and won’t do what he says, who are determined to run after any other god rather than to God himself. Moses says it must be a wholehearted return we make to him, “nothing halfhearted here; you must return to God, your God, totally, heart and soul, holding nothing back.” And if we do, “God will outdo himself, making things go well for you…,” De 30:8-10 MSG.

Who wouldn’t choose him after a promise like that?

If following God were simply a matter of just doing it, plenty of us would. But who hasn’t turned over a new leaf in January just to fall flat before the month’s over? The problem is sin that creeps in, and it’s got to be dealt with.

It’s a simple charge Moses gives God’s people on the plains of Moab: to keep a sharp eye out, to listen obediently, to firmly embrace God, but even for all his pleading and warning, they eventually won’t do it. Something more is needed to bring about the life God wants for them—and for us, too, come to think of it, De 29:1, 30:19-20, 31:15-16.

I look back in the text, “God, your God, will cut away the thick calluses on your heart and your children’s hearts, freeing you,” De 30:6 MSG.

That’s it. What’s needed is a new heart, a heart with the callused parts cut off. And this is just what God promises each of us. If God doesn’t reach down and enable us, no one will obey him, just like Israel didn’t. So God himself came and lived and died and rose to resurrect us as people who love and serve him with new hearts of flesh, Ez 11:19; 36:26; De 29:14-15, 30:6.

The good news of Jesus goes deeper than renewed willpower and want-to. Sin leaves us hogtied and unable, but Jesus comes and frees us. We simply trust him, while his Spirit enables us to live for him, Ga 3:22, 4:4-7; Ro 6:10-14.

When you can’t muscle up the willpower and want-to, ask God for a brand new heart–and then sit back and enjoy him.

Luke 12:1-12

It’s not whisky and wild women that’s at the top of Jesus’ warning list. It’s the danger of goody-goodies, those folks who pride themselves on their own spiritual performing, Lk 12:1-3.

Thousands are pressing in on him, but Jesus’ main concern is telling his disciples to watch out for religious phonies and not to let these fakers intimidate them into pretending like they do, Lk 12:4-5.

This is the biggest threat to authentic faith—thinking you’ve got what it takes, that you don’t really need a Savior in the first place. At least whisky and wild women eventually throw you on the ash heap, so you feel your need of him, but a self-satisfied heart has a hard time feeling anything but proud.

I know because this is who I’ve been. I used to think, It’s easy to be good. God’s lucky to have me. But one day, it wasn’t easy, and I found myself on an ash heap of my own making. I needed a Savior, and I had no idea. God reminded me that Jesus came for pretenders as well as for big, fat sinners. Turned out, I was both, and I cried out to him.

When you can’t muscle up the willpower and want-to, thank God for this glimpse of who you really are: a real sinner who desperately needs a real Savior.

Psalm 78:1-31

If your take is that God’s a God who’s ready to pounce, who sucks joy out of the room, who looks to find fault, well, think again, the psalmist says, Ps 78:2-4.

Even after all God did for his people–leading them through ocean water piled high on each side, guiding them in the cloud by day and fire by night, giving them water from rocks, raining down more manna and quail than they can eat–they still complained that he was out to get them, Ex 16:2-3, Nu 17:12-13, Ps 78:13-22.

“They had no intention of trusting his help. But God helped them anyway.” This is who God is—the One who’s faithful when we’re faithless, the One who helps even when we don’t trust him, the One who keeps bringing up sun and moon, and wildflowers in spring, and all while we’re chasing every other blamed thing. It’s astonishing, when you think about all that God does for us. I don’t ask him to keep my heart pumping or gravity working or tides pulling or allergy medicine on the shelves, but he does it anyway, Ps 78:21-31.

When you can’t muster the willpower and want-to, remember who God is, and let his goodness melt you.

Prayer

God, I can’t muscle up and obey you, but you can give me your muscle to do it. Please do. Thank you that living your way has never been about bootstraps and ought to’s. It’s about needing a Savior and trusting him for what I can’t do. I keep forgetting and trying to earn my way to you. Thank you for being my God, who loves me anyway.

In Jesus’ name.

Proverbs 12:19-20

Truth lasts. It doesn’t go out of style. Lies, on the other hand, pop like soap bubbles. Evil plans make for an evil planner, but peaceful plans bring joy for everybody.

Passages from Deuteronomy, Luke, Psalms, and Proverbs are selected for today in The Yearly Bible.