Getting Comfortable
Hebrews 10:11–18
Muscle Memory
“This is the covenant that I will make with them
after those days, says the Lord:
I will put my laws in their hearts,
and I will write them on their minds.” Hebrews 10:16
Two decades ago, I bought a book and taught myself to knit. It took me months to learn. One mistake in knitting can make a whole project unravel. It was incredibly frustrating; I felt like I was doing the wrong thing every time I picked up my needles. Now, after years of practice, my fingers know the motion of knitting almost in the same way that my lungs know how to breathe.
The writer of Hebrews encourages us in our Christian life by reminding us of the promise that God’s law will be in our hearts and written on our minds. We can live our lives without the shame and anxiety of sin because we live in the knowledge that we are forgiven, that Jesus’ work has already perfected us. Even when we do make mistakes, we are freed to live in this new reality where doing God’s will is written on our hearts, part of our muscle memory.
O Lord, may I live as one who is freed and forgiven, with your law so close to me that it is part of who I am. Amen.
Erica L. Schemper, Saint Paul, Minnesota
From These Days, Daily
Devotions for Living by Faith
A publication of the Presbyterian Church of the United States of America (P.C.U.S.A.)
