Blessings and a curse
Deuteronomy 28:2, “And all these blessings shall come upon you, and overtake you if you will obey the Lord your God.”
God is very clear about what will happen when we choose to follow His commands. We will be blessed by Him in all that we do! That is not to say that we will not endure hardships, but at the end of His cycle we will recieve the rewards that He has guaranteed to come. Just as the Israelites had to wait on the crops to grow and the flock to grow into maturity before they enjoyed the full fruits of their labor we must wait we must wait and endure hardships before the realization of our joy will be completed.
At times the hardships we endure can seem overwhelming. We must deal with the results of sin and disobedience. Nowhere in the Word of God are the children of God promised an easy life. Quite to the contrary; Jesus said in John 16:33, “These things I have spoken to you that in Me you may have peace. In the world you have tribulation, but take courage I have overcome the world.”
Just as the Israelites had to deal with dry seasons and fight off destroyers while their crops matured and their flocks grew we must deal with times when it seems like God has abandoned us and our enemies attack us, but God has promised us if we stay close to Him and His Word then we will be blessed when the cycle is complete.
I admit that there are times when it doesn’t seem to be worth the effort. Especially when we see people around us who spurn the Word of God get more and more, but then we must remember that their seeming good fortune is temporary. There is a saying, “A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.” That saying means that anything we can have now is better than what is ahead of us even if what we is ahead is better, and that might sound good on the surface because we are “gotta have it now” people. But if we look closer at that thinking it is totally contrary to how things really are. Certainly, we would rather wait a short while for the better thing; even if that means putting up with a few hardships while we wait. The Apostle Paul wrote in II Corinthians 4:17, “For momentary, light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison,” The Apostle Paul who endured shipwrecks, torture, and countless days of imprisonment wrote that our hardships are producing “glory far beyond all comparison”.
Those words should remind us all that the Glory awaiting us is more to be considered than any trial we must endure now.
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Father, I thank You for the blessed assurance that is waiting for me, and I ask that You keep the Glory that lies ahead fresh in my mind as I deal with the hardships of this life. In Jesus’ name, Amen
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The image above can be found at: http://pathwayofblessing.wordpress.com/2009/10/02/journey-of-an-elder-brother-day-eighteen/god-of-hope/
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