Deuteronomy 28: 2, 45 NIV
All these blessing will come upon you and accompany you if you obey the Lord your God. 45 All these curses will come upon you. They will pursue you and overtake you until you are destroyed, because you did not obey the Lord you God and observe the commands and decrees he gave you.
He replied, “Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and obey it.” Luke 11: 28 (NIV).
I call on heaven and earth as witnesses today that I have offered you life or death, blessings or curses. Choose life so that you and your descendants will live. Deuteronomy 30: 19 (GW).
Lest we be deceived, thinking God has changed His tune since we are living in the New Testament, I included the words of Jesus from the gospel of Luke. There is blessing in obedience. No one wants to hear this, I know. Obedience is not at the top of our favored subjects. We should not mourn, though. There is plenty of good news here. Yes, if we do not obey, the curse, which is in the land, will overtake us. You do know that there is a curse out there, right? It came with the fall of humanity, but God’s blessing is bigger than the curse. And, it is elective. Anyone who chooses to participate in the blessing, rather than the curse, can. We learn that from Deuteronomy 30: 19. God allows us to choose. So, we can choose to be blessed and why wouldn’t we?
Well, because the price is obedience and, honestly, our generation has a problem with being told what to do, even by God. We are very self-aware and self-guided. That is the choice we make. Will we humble ourselves to the direction of the Lord, or will we adhere to our own form of wisdom? The answer seems obvious, doesn’t it, but if you observe the world around you, I think you will find very few people who are actually submitted to the Lord.
The other question which must be addressed is, “What, or whom, are we to obey?” Jesus answered that question in Luke. We must first humble ourselves to hearing and receiving the Word of God. Then we obey what the Word says. That’s it. Listen and obey. It sounds easy but it requires slaying our egos and that is hard. Still, I think I would rather have the blessing than build an altar to my already over-inflated ego. What about you?!