Proverbs 3:3. Let not steadfast love and faithfulness forsake you; bind them around your neck; write them on the tablet of your heart.
The importance of never losing sight of God’s steadfast love and faithfulness is stressed here in Proverbs 3:3. Don’t let them get away. Bind them around your neck. Write them on your heart.
This imagery is not lost on us. We often wear jewelry around our necks, even religious images like a cross. Why do people wear the cross around their neck and close to their hearts? Because either the cross itself is special to them, or the necklace itself is special to them. Either way it is meant to be a reminder of something. In the same way, God’s love and faithfulness, his covenant with us, must never be forgotten, so do whatever you need to do to remember whose you are.
As we’ve said in an earlier devotional, in the Old Testament, your heart is the most important part of you. The heart is the control center of a person. It is the deepest part of the soul that decides what you love, what you desire, and what you care about. Desire and wisdom meet in the heart. Solomon (and God) is asking us to trust God’s covenant love for us so much that it becomes the very center of our life, not an afterthought, but the controlling influence of our existence.
But notice that in Proverbs WE are the ones making sure that God’s love and faithfulness are being applied to our hearts. We do the binding. We do the writing. Proverbs leaves it up to us to sway our hearts back toward God. We must prevent God’s love from forsaking us. We hold fast to God, not the other way around.
But the good news of union with Christ is far better. The promise of the New Covenant is far superior. In Christ, the Spirit does the binding. He does the writing. He has written God’s law, God’s word, on our hearts for us.
Hebrews 8:10. For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my laws into their minds, and write them on their hearts, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.
Romans 5:5. God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.
Of course, this glorious promise doesn’t leave us perfectly passive, waiting for the love of Christ to be zapped into us by the Spirit. But it does mean that we can know deep in our hearts that the steadfast love and faithfulness of God will NEVER forsake us. It will never abandon us. It will bring us all the way home. And when we know this about God’s love, we can then begin to daily trust God’s love for us in Christ. We can bind it around our neck and write it on our heart experientially, through worship and remembrance.
To live is Christ means no longer having to bring God’s love into our own hearts from the outside in. By the indwelling Spirit of Christ, God’s love is moving through our hearts from the inside out, allowing us to love God and love others from a heart that is certain of his love for us.
You: Would you say that your mindset is one of keeping God’s love, or receiving God’s love.
You in Christ: God’s love is given to us. Unearned. Undeserved.How does this gospel truth actually help us to trust God more?
Christ in you: Where can you see God’s love, the love of Christ, coming out of you towards others?
Pray: Father, your Spirit of love, the Spirit of Christ is in me forever. Help me to let your love flow out of me today by faith. Amen.
To Live is Christ 