Devotional - March 29, 2004

Moses said when you obey God's word you'll be blessed and when you disobey it you'll be cursed. Yikes! And I thought curses were the devil's work. No way, God curses his children. Or does he? (Vs. 28)

If you asked most people what they associate with being a Christian, they'll most often say it's being blessed. To many, blessing defines the things we receive from God and give back to him or to others on the basis of what's been given us. But Moses revealed a flip side to that nice equation.

It's easy to tell a curse from a blessing, right? In Luke, we read of a storm on a lake while the disciples were crossing over to the other side. The disciples thought their boat was about to be capsized with them in it. But Jesus was asleep on board and when awakened by the concerned men, he calmed the sea with a command. The disciples were blessed to have the Master of the sea on board.

Now look at the demon who Jesus encountered at Gerasenes. We don't know the man's name but we know the name of the demon. When confronted by Jesus, the demon said his name was Legion. What Legion made that man he possessed do could be called anything but a blessing. And the terror and fear he spread throughout the land was no blessing to those he terrorized. (Luke 8:22-29)

God's word is the standard by which the child of God lives. Obedience then, is the way God determines who to bless and who to curse. That's right. God gives positive blessings of the obedient and negative blessings on those who disobey the principles of Scripture.

This is well and good, but I find it curious that most Christians ignore Scripture and yet consider themselves blessed. When going through problems, they regard them as tolerable noting that everyone has problems. They never consider that what they're experiencing might be the result of God's promise to curse them for their disobedience.

What to do? Well, we can always determine to honor and obey God's word, not so much to receive His blessings as much as please Him in everything we do. Now, that's a radical thought, is it not?