All of us want to live lives that are overflowing with the blessings of God. What’s even more encouraging is the fact that God wants us to be blessed. While there is nothing we can do to earn God’s blessings, favor, and grace, He does want us to live our lives in a way that puts us in a position to experience those blessings. Today, discover how you can live your best life by living your blessed life.
Matthew 7:9-11 (NLT)
“You parents-if your children ask for a load of bread, do you give them a stone instead? Or if they ask for a fish, do you give them a snake? Of course not! So if you sinful people know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give good gifts to those who ask him.”
God wants to bless His people. The only thing that makes our Father happier than seeing us blessed is when He gets to add a new member to His family. If you’re a parent, you know how much it means to you when you get to see your children truly happy about something you have done for them. The smile that comes over their face is worth everything that you went through to bless them with whatever you’ve blessed them with.
The Bible teaches us that if we know how to give good gifts to our children, our Heavenly Father is even better at blessing us. However, there are times where you simply cannot bless your children with a gift. For instance, if your child does something that is blatantly disobedient to a rule that you have established, you cannot rationalize going out and getting him or her a gift for their actions. For instance, if your teenager proves that he or she is going to continue to break the curfew that you have set, you probably won’t go out and buy him or her a new car.
This refusal to bless them with something they want doesn’t mean you don’t love them. Instead, it goes back to the old saying that teaches us that you cannot reward bad behavior. There is nothing your child can do to truly “deserve” a new car, but you will buy him or her one because you love them. In the same vein, there is nothing we can do to earn the blessings of God, but there are things that we can do that can preclude us from receiving everything that God wants to bless us with.
Today’s study isn’t about “earning” God’s favor. The very idea of God’s favor being something you can earn is erroneous. However, there are things that you can do that will block your blessing. Today, let’s discover what it means to put ourselves in a position to receive God’s blessing. If there are areas in your life that are hindering the blessings of God from flowing into you, ask the Holy Spirit for the strength to make the changes that you need to make. Today can be the day that you start living your blessed life.
Obedience Unlocks Blessing
Deuteronomy 28:1-6 (NLT)
“If you fully obey the Lord your God and carefully keep all his commands that I am giving you today, the Lord your God will set you high above all the nations of the world. You will experience all these blessings if you obey the Lord your God: Your towns and your fields will be blessed. Your children and your crops will be blessed. The offspring of your herds and flocks will be blessed. Your fruit baskets and the breadboards will be blessed. Wherever you go and whatever you do, you will be blessed.”
This declaration from Moses to the children of Israel is one of the most powerful examples of God correlating obedience and blessing. Think of this as a classic case of cause and effect. If you do one thing, another thing will happen. In this instance, Moses told the children of Israel that if they would fully obey the Lord and carefully keep His commandments, the Lord would bless them.
Moses went on to list the things that would be blessed if the Israelites would remain obedient to God. While there are some cultural implications to that list, we can look at it as an example of the areas in our lives that will be blessed if we walk according to God’s commandments.
First, Moses said that their towns and their fields would be blessed. Obviously, we may not have “fields,” but this level of blessing speaks to the area in which they lived. During the course of the 40-year wilderness journey, the Israelites would set up temporary homesteads. When Moses said that their towns and their fields would be blessed, he was speaking about God’s blessing upon their communities. It’s amazing to think about, but your obedience can serve as a conduit for God’s blessings on your community. When you obey God’s will for your life, that includes looking for opportunities to show His love to the people around you. When you do that, those people will recognize their need for a Savior, and God’s presence will become even more prominent in your community.
Secondly, Moses said that their children and their crops would be blessed. This is a two-fold blessing that includes the inside of the home and the outside of the home. First of all, Moses said that obedience to God would result in a blessing on the Israelite’s children. Your obedience has a direct impact on your home. Whether you have children or not, your willingness to obey God will have a positive impact on your home.
It’s important to note that when crops are discussed in the Old Testament, crops were the currency of the day. People didn’t really have money to go out and purchase what they wanted or needed. Instead, they would grow the food that their families ate, and then they would use some of those crops to barter for other materials that were necessary. When we are obedient to God, God blesses us with the things we want and need. One of the most difficult areas to be obedient is in our finances. After all, we like to hold on to the money we make, or we want to use it to pay for the things we need and want. However, when we are obedient to God through giving to His Kingdom, He is able to bless our finances in the same way that He was able to bless the crops of the Israelites.
Moses also addressed God’s blessings on the Israelites livestock. This is another area in the Israelite culture that involved their economy. Depending on a person’s abilities and attributes, they may have chosen to raise livestock instead of planting gardens. When Moses promised that God would bless their herds and livestock, he was speaking about their long-term financial stability. When a herd of animals is healthy, it reproduces. This reproduction secured the owner’s financial stability for the future. When we obey God, especially with our resources, His blessings can be experienced both in the present and in the future.
The promise that God would bless their fruit baskets and their breadboards was about God’s provision and His commitment to meeting their needs. While it may seem like this is another layer of economic provision, it actually goes beyond that. In Philippians 4:9, Paul promised that the people of God would have all of their needs met. Provision in the fruit basket and on the breadboard spoke to the promise of God’s supernatural provision in every area of their lives.
Finally, Moses told Israel that God would bless them everywhere that they went and in everything that they did if they would remain obedient. This all-encompassing term is easily applied to our own lives. As long as we commit ourselves to obedience to God, God will bless us wherever we go and whatever we do.
A Closing Prayer:
Heavenly Father, I want to experience all Your blessings in my life. Show me if there are any areas in my life in which I am not walking in obedience to You so I can make changes. In Christ’s name, Amen.