“If you fully obey
the Lord your God and carefully follow all his commands I give you today, the
Lord your God will set you high above all the nations on earth. All these
blessings will come on you and accompany you if you obey the Lord your God”
(Deuteronomy 28:1-2).
How many of us make
a determined endeavor to live for Christ? Perhaps we don't because following Him
means sacrifice. We want to follow Him, but it means giving up who we are for
who He is. It is going to cost us. Selfishness and pride are two of the first
things that must die. Following Christ also takes our time and energy. Often we
make our Christian walk circumstantial—based on our feelings instead of God's desires. But if we
sacrifice our feelings and follow His will in all circumstances, God's blessings
“will come upon us and accompany us”.
It is God's desire
to bless His children who make a commitment to follow Him. His blessings are His
gifts which come when we sacrifice our personal desires for His. However, we
must never regard obedience as a means to earn God's blessings. Then pride
enters, and makes us see God's blessings as a reward for our sacrifice.
Sacrificing our desires for His desires brings blessings because of God's love
for us—not based on
our efforts.
His blessings are an
outpouring of who He is. He is the love which gave His life for ours on Calvary.
He is the love that is only completed in us when we give all of who we are to
Him. His blessings flow as a result of who He is, and never because of anything
we have done. “I have come,” Jesus said, “that they may have life, and have it
to the full” (John 10:10b). God wants us to experience the fullness of our
relationship with Him.
In these verses in
Deuteronomy God's blessings are intertwined with obedience. His direction is
very clear. If we fully obey the Lord our God and carefully follow all His
commands, His blessings will come to us. And His blessings are the very best.
Different from any humanly-inspired gift we might receive, His blessings will
change our very lives. We will learn that sacrificial obedience brings His
abundant life. In giving all of ourselves to Him, we shall receive all that He has
chosen for us.
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