49. I am setting before you today a blessing and a curse

Deuteronomy 11:22   For if you will be careful to do all this commandment that I command you to do, loving the Lord your God, walking in all his ways, and holding fast to him, then the Lord will drive out all these nations before you, and you will dispossess nations greater and mightier than you. Every place on which the sole of your foot treads shall be yours. Your territory shall be from the wilderness to the Lebanon and from the River, the river Euphrates, to the western sea. No one shall be able to stand against you. The Lord your God will lay the fear of you and the dread of you on all the land that you shall tread, as he promised you.  “See, I am setting before you today a blessing and a curse: the blessing, if you obey the commandments of the Lord your God, which I command you today, and the curse, if you do not obey the commandments of the Lord your God, but turn aside from the way that I am commanding you today, to go after other gods that you have not known.

Deuteronomy 30:20    loving the LORD your God, obeying his voice and holding fast to him, for he is your life and length of days,

Isaiah 3:10    Tell the righteous that it shall be well with them, for they shall eat the fruit of their deeds.

Luke 11:28     But he said, “Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and keep it!”

John 13:17    If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them.

A blessing and a curse.  Who would intentionally choose a curse?  Who would say I want to have no peace, no satisfaction, no protection, no hope, no purpose, no future, no meaning, no joy, no rest ……???  I have to think the number who would say this is small.  But still, this is how they walk through life.  If they did not intentionally choose it how does it come to pass?

The curse is the outcome when the blessing is not sought.  Blessings come when there is an intentional choice and continual pursuit to serve, honor, follow and obey God.   Blessings come when we choose to trust in, cling to, and rely on God.  When things look like there is no way out we can choose to go it alone or we can place it in God’s hands and trust Him completely.

As I write this I am so convicted on how I let certain things worry me, cause doubt, affect my outlook…..God does not change and is able to do more than I can imagine.  So why do I walk in a time of testing and allow worry, doubt, and anxiousness to rule.  Could it be that I am choosing the curse of them over the blessings of God?  Faith, Trust, Hope are all rooted in God through Jesus Christ and if they are intentionally desired, sought after, and cherished the voids we find created by worry, doubt, and anxiousness have no place to take rood even though these seeds may have been planted by the circumstance we face.  Faith, trust, hope are blessings from God through Jesus Christ.