Then it shall come to pass, because you listen to these judgments, and keep and do them, that the LORD your God will keep with you the covenant and the mercy which he swore to your fathers. And He will love you and bless you and multiply you; He will also bless the fruit of your womb and the fruit of your land, your grain and your new wine and your oil, the increase of your cattle and the offspring of your flock, in the land of which He swore to your fathers to give you.     Deuteronomy 7:12-13 NKJV

God commands obedience. In this passage in Deuteronomy, Moses is explaining to the Israelites that God will greatly bless them if they obey His commands. They had the choice, just as we do, to obey or to disobey.

We make a choice every day in every situation we face to be obedient or to rebel against the will of God. When we are asked a difficult question, do we choose to lie? When we see an opportunity to cheat in whatever way is available, do we take it? Do we put our needs above the needs of others? Hopefully, you answered no to these questions, but these are temptations we face every day. And if we are honest with ourselves, sometimes the sinful approach seems to be the easiest way out of a tough situation.

This group of Israelites was the new generation, and they were preparing to enter the Promised Land. Because of their rebellion and disobedience, the old generation that had come out of Egypt had died in the wilderness and were not allowed to enter. This generation has seen firsthand how disobedience can lead to one being cursed by God.

Moses is explaining how disobedience leads to these great blessings from God. And if you have been a Christian for a while, you understand what Moses is saying. Even though we go through times of trouble, once we become a child of God, we experience His blessings. We experience the comfort of having Him as a refuge in times of trouble. We experience the unending joy in having that personal relationship with our Lord and Savior. And we know that no matter what we go through, He is working all things for our good as long as we love Him and are called according to His purpose, as we are told in Romans 8:28.

But my question for you today is, do you choose obedience? And if you do, then why? We must understand that God doesn’t want us to choose obedience to get His blessing. God wants us to choose obedience because of our love for Him.

My little granddaughter is almost 20 months old. This is a critical time in teaching her right from wrong. I do my best to teach her with love. I want her to know that the things I stop her from doing are because she will hurt herself if she does them. I want her to know that it is out of love that I correct her. Most importantly, I want her to obey me because of her love for me, not to avoid punishment or to receive a reward.

We are God’s children. He wants us to choose to obey Him because we love Him and we want to please Him. When He tells us not to do something, it’s because He doesn’t want us to get hurt.

God knows your heart. And He wants you to have a heart full of love for Him. When your heart is full of love for God, you don’t want to disappoint Him. You want to be an obedient child.

Have a great day!