Obedience is Desired, Even Commanded (March 21)

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 upon you and accompany you if you obey the Lord your God:

     You will be blessed in the city and blessed in the country
      The fruit of your womb will be blessed, and the crops of your land  and the young of your livestock-the calves of your herds and the lambs of your flocks.
      Your basket and your kneading trough will be blessed
      You will be blessed when you come in and blessed when you go out.

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 your God and observe the commands and decrees he gave you.

                 From Deuteronomy 28 NIV

God is clear here that he wants his commands and decrees to be remembered.  He instructs his blessings be proclaimed from Mount Gerizim and his curses be proclaimed from Mount Ebal as Israel is entering the promised land.  I have been told that the geography in this area is such that these mountians form a natural amphitheater, so that if something is proclaimed from one or the other mountain, that proclamation is clearly heard in the valley.  Think of the impression that this would make on an individual entering the promised land hearing curses on one side and blessings on the other.

God wants us to obey him and blessings will flow.  Disobey and curses will be seen.  Webster tells us that obey means: to comply with or follow the commands, restrictions, wishes or instructions of; to comply with or follow; to respond comfortably in action to (eg a car responds); to submit or conform in action to (a guiding priniciple); to be obedient or to be obeying or willing to obey, comply with or submissive to authority.

Think of the skillls or traits needed to obey; humility, courage, trust, belief and others come to mind.  We have read that the Israelites are a stiff necked people, a grumbling people, and a wandering people who do arise God's anger. 

We in praying the Lord's prayer petition him by stating, "thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven."  We in a sense are asking, by the spirit, for the ability to obey.

What in your life is inhibiting you from fully obeying the Lord?

Will you pray for the Spirit to open up your eyes to these potential blind spots?

In Christ,

David P