“Now it shall come to pass, if you diligently obey the voice of the Lord your God, to observe carefully all His commandments which I command you today, that the Lord your God will set you high above all the nations of the earth.” – Deuteronomy 28:1 (NKJV)
Obedience to God’s Word, statutes, commandments, and covenant brings Blessings.
Although God’s love for us is unconditional the blessings of God are conditional. Obedience is the key to unlocking blessings. Partial obedience, delayed obedience, proudly refusing to obey, complaining instead of obeying, obeying with an angry spirit, and questioning clear commands are all disobedience in the sight of God.
Mercy is one of the many blessings of God. Before we can receive God’s mercy, however, He requires that we repent of all of our rebellion and sins. This must be a deliberate decision on our part. We must lay down our rebellion and submit ourselves without reservation to all that God requires of us. When we are truly repentant we no longer argue with God.
Derek Prince, author of, Blessing or Curse: You can Choose, collated God’s list of blessings as outlined in Deuteronomy 28:3-13 (Exaltation, Health, Reproductiveness, Prosperity, Victory, and God’s favour). Commenting on God’s blessings of exaltation in Deuteronomy 28:13 – which states that the Lord will make us the head and not the tail – informs that the head makes the decision and the tail just gets dragged around. Reproduction, for the author, is a condition in which every area of a person’s life is fruitful and reproductive. This would include family, livestock, crops, business, and the exercise of creative talents. “All of these should reflect God’s blessings in appropriate ways”. We are therefore called to do self-introspection and self-evaluation to ascertain whether we are living as heads or as tails; and whether we need to make the necessary adjustments to attract God’s blessings upon our lives.
Prayer
Heavenly Father, in the name of Jesus, we repent of our past sins that were committed presumptuously and/or ignorantly that inhibited our blessings. And like the Apostle Paul in Philippians 3:13-14, we commit ourselves to “forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press towards the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus”. Amen!
Read: Deuteronomy 11:1; Romans 16:19
Bible Reading Guide: Psalms 124; Hebrews 11:17-40; Ezekiel 24; Ezekiel 25