written on the tablet

More than ten years ago a friend shared a couple of verses with me, little knowing the impact those words would have.  

Proverbs 3:1-4

My son, do not forget my teaching, but keep my commands in your heart, for they will prolong your life many years and bring you prosperity.  Let love and faithfulness never leave you; bind them around your neck, write them on the tablet of your heart.  Then you will win favor and a good name in the sight of God and man.

We are called to be faithful.  We are called to be loyal.  We are called to be wholeheartedly sold out to God.  Let love and faithfulness never leave you.  We are called to live a life characterized by love and faithfulness.

The phrase write them on the tablet [of your heart] is used several times in the Old Testament and this passage has a similar structure to the Shema found in Deuteronomy 6.  What stands out most to me is the method of writing here is as if it is being engraved in stone.  A similar phrase in Jeremiah 17:1 says, "Judah’s sin is engraved with an iron tool, inscribed with a flint point, on the tablets of their hearts."  

2 Corinthians 3:1-6

Are we beginning to commend ourselves again? Or do we need, like some people, letters of recommendation to you or from you?  You yourselves are our letter, written on our hearts, known and read by everybody.  You show that you are a letter from Christ, the result of our ministry, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts.  Such confidence as this is ours through Christ before God.  Not that we are competent in ourselves to claim anything for ourselves, but our competence comes from God.  He has made us competent as ministers of a new covenant—not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life. 

What do I want engraved on my heart?  The only thing I want written on my heart is God.  As 2 Corinthians 3 says, "You yourselves are our letter, written on our hearts, known and read by everybody."