Obedience is best!

Deuteronomy 28:1-14

This is the familiar blessing and cursing chapter of the Old Testament, it is much more than the prosperity promises. This is not about a God who is mostly mad and wants to squish weak little humans. It displays God’s heart toward His children. He wants to come and find habitation in their midst. If they prepare a home for Him; not one made of wood, stone, precious metals, or human hands, but a place within their hearts.

There is no good thing He will withhold from them if they give their whole hearts towards full obedience. Their food, clothing, homes, jobs, children, gardens and livestock will all be blessed. He proclaimed these blessings from Him would overtake them. You can’t out run the blessing of God; there is no place to hide that His hands can’t reach out to bless you. They would come regardless of external circumstances. This is the moment when the Heavenly Father declares to His own children the blessings He will lavish upon them.

These blessing where and are conditional. They require obedience which is turning our hearts and ears towards Him. Hearing and obey His voice above the noise of the crowd. You get these blessings when you obey His commands because that is submitting to the leadership of our Bridegroom.

Disobedience carries consequences that were as horrifying as the blessings were good. Jesus has not excused us from total and full obedience. No, He has empowered us to want it; to seek after it not primarily for the physical blessings but for deeper fellowship with the Godhead. He gives us the power to change and be transformed by the precious Holy Spirit.

Lord, I want to yield my heart to you more and more. Yes the blessing are an attraction, but the little glimpses I have seen of the God/Man Jesus make me want you more. I may fall, but the longing to be nearer, closer, more intimate with you compels me to get back up. Obedience is better than sacrifice or repentance; love is better than obligation or coercion. I want the things of your heart, come and give me the things of your heart. Not by strength, nor by power, but by Your Spirit. --Amen