Tag: stand against you

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.

Terror from God fell

Genesis 35:5  And as they journeyed, a terror from God fell upon the cities that were around them, so that they did not pursue the sons of Jacob.

Exodus 15:15-16    Now are the chiefs of Edom dismayed; trembling seizes the leaders of Moab; all the inhabitants of Canaan have melted away.  Terror and dread fall upon them; because of the greatness of your arm, they are still as a stone

Exodus 23:27    I will send my terror before you and will throw into confusion all the people against whom you shall come, and I will make all your enemies turn their backs to you.

Exodus 34:24     For I will cast out nations before you and enlarge your borders; no one shall covet your land,

Deuteronomy 11:25     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.

Joshua 2:9-11    and said to the men, “I know that the LORD has given you the land, and that the fear of you has fallen upon us, and that all the inhabitants of the land melt away before you.  For we have heard how the LORD dried up the water of the Red Sea before you when you came out of Egypt, and what you did to the two kings of the Amorites who were beyond the Jordan, to Sihon and Og, whom you devoted to destruction.  And as soon as we heard it, our hearts melted, and there was no spirit left in any man because of you, for the LORD your God, he is God in the heavens above and on the earth beneath.

Joshua 5:1     As soon as all the kings of the Amorites who were beyond the Jordan to the west, and all the kings of the Canaanites who were by the sea, heard that the LORD had dried up the waters of the Jordan for the people of Israel until they had crossed over, their hearts melted and there was no longer any spirit in them because of the people of Israel.

2 Chronicles 17:10     And the fear of the LORD fell upon all the kingdoms of the lands that were around Judah, and they made no war against Jehoshaphat.

Psalms 14:5     There they are in great terror, for God is with the generation of the righteous.

When we are about God’s work, we are under special protection; God is with us, while we are with him; and if He be for us, who can be against us? God governs the world more by secret terrors on men’s minds than we are aware of.

Much of what we fear comes from our limiting of what we think God can do.No matter what we face, God is bigger.  No matter how big the trial, God is stronger.  No matter how dark it looks, God is brighter.  No matter how chaotic is seems, God is peace.  No matter what sin you have committed, God will forgive the repentant heart that believes in trusts in Christ.