Compartmentalized Christianity

"Hear, O Israel! The LORD is our God, the LORD is one!  You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. These words, which I am commanding you today, shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your sons and shall talk of them when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way and when you lie down and when you rise up.  You shall bind them as a sign on your hand and they shall be as frontals on your forehead. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates." (Deut.6:4-9, NASB95) 

As I finish the Pentateuch (the first five books of the Old Testament) in my through-the-Bible-in-a-year plan, the thought that has been circling around in my mind has been how the religious system of Israel was designed to make the worship of God central in their lives.  All the feasts, sacrifices, priestly system, ceremonies, diet laws, the tabernacle, etc., functioned to set the nation apart from the surrounding pagan nations and provided a means of atonement for sin.  But it was also intended to keep God at the forefront of their thinking and living from the moment they awoke until they went to bed at night.  God was not a part of the lives of a Hebrew family--He was central to their lives.  They got into trouble when they allowed other issues of life to take His rightful place.  

This convicts me, as so often I seem to compartmentalize my faith.  Life is so busy and there are always so many things vying for my attention and my allegiance that I pigeonhole things, and sometimes I pigeonhole Jesus Christ.  I imagine there are many of you who can sympathize.  We have a tendency to only reach for Him at certain times of the day--if we remember--or when something bad happens, or on the one day a week that tradition has set aside as the Lord's Day.  This pattern misses the sense of great privilege we have of walking with Him throughout the day, centering our day on Him by abiding in Him and offering ourselves continuously as a living sacrifice, not by law-keeping, but  through the Holy Spirit.  This great New Covenant reality adds to my sense of conviction.  Liberty from the Law through Christ is a great thing, but when that liberty turns to spiritual laziness, it is just as sinful as legalism.