Earlier in this chapter, God gave Moses the first part of the Great Commandment: “You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might” (Deut. 6:5). But how are we to put this commandment into practice in our daily lives?

First, this passage tells us what we are not to do. We are not to put God to the test. At Massah, the people complained against Moses because there was no water at their desert campsite. In Exodus 17:1-7, they accused him, and thus accused God, of bringing them out of Egypt in order to kill them in the desert. Even though God had parted the waters of the Red Sea for them, even though God had made bitter waters sweet for them to drink, and even though God had rained down bread from Heaven for them to eat, they did not trust Him to solve their latest difficulty. The urgency of their physical thirst simply overwhelmed their faith in God.

So, if we are to love God with all our heart and soul and might, at the very least that means trusting Him to be with us and to take care of us, no matter the circumstances in which we might find ourselves today, and no matter how or when God chooses to solve our problems. Getting mad at God when everything in life doesn’t go the way we think it should isn’t trusting God at all – it’s treating Him like a waiter or an errand boy.

But there’s another way for us to express our love for and trust in God: obedience to His Word. For if we must trust God to solve our problems in His way and in His time, we must also do what He tells us to do, even if some of those things don’t make sense to us, or even if some of those things seem to run contrary to our self-interest.

But there is a promise attached to this commandment. Moses said that if the people would trust God and obey Him, God would go before them and conquer their enemies, making it possible for them to receive the land God had promised them. In the same way, if we want to have victory over all the enemies in our lives, over grief and fear and disappointment and despair and even sin and death itself, we also need to trust God’s power to save us through the cross of Christ, just as we obey Him by living according to His Great Commandment.

Deuteronomy 6:16-19 (ESV)

16 “You shall not put the LORD your God to the test, as you tested him at Massah.
17 You shall diligently keep the commandments of the LORD your God, and his testimonies and his statutes, which he has commanded you.
18 And you shall do what is right and good in the sight of the LORD, that it may go well with you, and that you may go in and take possession of the good land that the LORD swore to give to your fathers
19 by thrusting out all your enemies from before you, as the LORD has promised.