Readers’ Choice is here: Over two-thirds of our devotionals get emailed responses from readers like you. Hearing that what we have written is meaningful to you is meaningful to us. That’s why we love sharing some of your comments and messages. Thank you, readers. We do what we do to serve you. There’s still time to tell us about your favorite, most meaningful posts of the year. If you shared it with someone, or it helped you, let us know via email, direct message, or by filling out the linked form.
Links for today’s readings:
Oct 3 Read: 1 Kings 6 Listen: (5:10) Read: Psalms 23-24 Listen: (2:03)
Links for this weekend’s readings:
Oct 4 Read: 1 Kings 7 Listen: (7:47) Read: Psalms 25 Listen: (2:18)
Oct 5 Read: 1 Kings 8 Listen: (10:23) Read: Psalms 26-27 Listen: (3:13)
Readers’ Choice posts are selected by our readers:
Barbara, TN — Thank you, Erin! Wow, what a synopsis! Thank you!
Jason, TX — Erin knocked this one out of the park! So clear and so powerful to see how the whole book is about choosing the way of life.
This post was originally published on June 25, 2025, based on readings from Deuteronomy 30.19.
Scripture Focus: Deuteronomy 30:19
19 … I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life…”
Reflection: Choosing Life-A Recap of Deuteronomy — Readers’ Choice
By Erin Newton
Choosing life means choosing God. It is both a singular choice to change one’s identity forever and a perpetual choice to choose godliness every day.
God set before his people (within arm’s reach, he adds in vv. 11-14) the guidelines to follow. How does a person choose life? Let’s recap what Deuteronomy has said.
Choosing life means…
- Following him, even in the land of “giants” (1.22-33).
- Being kind to your brothers and sisters, even if they are (by definition) a different people (2.2-6).
- Knowing when God has told you no (3.26-29).
- Obeying the commands from God without adding your own ideas or ignoring the ones you dislike (4.2).
- Memorizing the core summary of godliness in ten commandments (chapter 5).
- Loving God with the entirety of our being—all strength and soul (6.4).
- Remembering that God’s grace is given to those he loves, not those who deem themselves worthy (7.7-8).
- Not forgetting God—who he is and what he has done (chapter 8).
- Remembering the lure of temptation and your weaknesses (9.7-21).
- Circumcising your heart by adopting the identity of God’s people, becoming like him in the process (10.16)
- Seeing the creation become fruitful and plentiful, and working with creation in an interdependent relationship: God, humanity, and creation (11.13-15).
- Worshipping God (chapter 12).
- Being aware of false prophets and the temptation to worship someone (or something) else (13.1-8).
- Providing for God’s people and his church financially (14.22-29).
- Being purposefully and committedly gracious—granting freedom physically and financially to those around you (15.1-18).
- Remembering the holy days with feasts and festivals and worship (16.1-17).
- Enacting justice in the community (17.1-13).
- Testing prophets and those who speak in the name of God (18.14-22).
- Providing spaces for grace and mercy (19.1-10).
- Choosing peace before conflict (20.10).
- Seeking justice and closure when answers are elusive (21.1-9).
- Being wise in your judgment of others, especially when one party is likely abused (22.26-27).
- Welcoming the foreigner who chooses to live among God’s people (23.15-16).
- Not exploiting your neighbors (24.14-18).
- Finding wisdom in cross-cultural spaces and gleaning its truth for today (25.4).
- Living sacrificially (26.1-15).
- Remembering what God has prohibited (27.15-26).
- Remembering the blessings God has in store (28.1-14).
- Remaining content in what God has revealed to us and the knowledge he withholds for himself (29.29).
Each chapter has highlighted one or more ways of choosing God—choosing life. Let us also choose life each day, fulfilling the calls from Deuteronomy.
The Lord’s Prayer:
We will take a break from The Divine Hours prayers for the month of October and instead pray Dallas Willard’s paraphrase of The Lord’s Prayer:
Dear Father, always near us, may your name be treasured and loved, may your rule be completed in us—may your will be done here on earth in just the way it is done in heaven.
Give us today the things we need today, and forgive us our sins and impositions on you as we are forgiving all who in any way offend us.
Please don’t put us through trials, but deliver us from everything bad. Because you are the one in charge, and you have all the power, and the glory too is all yours-forever-which is just the way we want it!
Readers’ Choice is here!
#ReadersChoice is time for you to share favorite Park Forum posts from the year.
What post helped you better understand scripture?
https://forms.gle/aSD7X5psHqjSMtBFA
Read more: The Stretching Arm of Salvation
We pray for those in need of salvation…a prayer for those suffering oppression, injustice, and persecution.