It is the season for coughs and colds and I am currently getting through the tissues, honey and lemon at an alarming rate. When I sneeze is often followed by, ‘Bless you!’ … or a laugh from my family as they aren’t that good at hiding their humour in my suffering! I am grateful that a sneeze, in our modern world, no longer indicates something much worse with a dire outcome where a blessing was given. At other times, I’ve often heard people say, ‘Bless you!’ when they have heard a sad or difficult bit of news and want to show some sympathy. Then there are the, ‘Oh, bless!’ comments for the times when someone hasn’t noticed their mistake or something cute and endearing has happened.
Blessing in the dictionary is described as GOD’s favour and protection. Powerful meaning, don’t you think?
I have reached Deuteronomy 28 and this chapter begins with a list of blessing. In all these places GOD would give favour and protection.
If you fully obey the Lord your God and carefully follow all his commands I give you today, the Lord your God will set you high above all the nations on earth. 2 All these blessings will come on you and accompany you if you obey the Lord your God:
3 You will be blessed in the city and blessed in the country.
4 The fruit of your womb will be blessed, and the crops of your land and the young of your livestock—the calves of your herds and the lambs of your flocks.
5 Your basket and your kneading trough will be blessed.
6 You will be blessed when you come in and blessed when you go out.
7 The Lord will grant that the enemies who rise up against you will be defeated before you. They will come at you from one direction but flee from you in seven.
8 The Lord will send a blessing on your barns and on everything you put your hand to. The Lord your God will bless you in the land he is giving you. Deuteronomy 28:1-8
All these blessings are linked closely with obeying the Lord; being fully obedient leads to a very full blessing. Here, the list of the places where there will be blessing is long … in the city, in the country, the fruit of the womb, crops, livestock, basket, kneading troughs and barns. That all sounds lovely but doesn’t really mean much to me and the way that I live. I know that I want to understand and see the blessing of GOD in my life, so I thought about this list in terms of my lifestyle and what those things represented to the people of the day. My version of the list goes like this …
You will be blessed in the places of power and rest, reproduction (family and discipleship), growth, wealth, provision, everyday needs and the future.
What a very full blessing GOD wants to lavishly give! He is not limited and is over abundant in His generosity.
Our part to play is obedience. Obedience to GOD is not done because of a bribe of a promised blessing; that isn’t obedience, that is religion. Religion tells you to follow the rules and the law, obedience chooses to do the same. Obedience is given willingly to the one we trust knows more than we do, cares for us completely and has the best for us. Obedience produces this blessing. The results of obeying GOD and doing things His way will always have a result of blessing … it is the only outcome available. The blessing that accompanies obedience is so great that ‘The Lord will send a blessing … on everything you put your hand to.’
It is such a wonderful idea to be blessed by GOD but how are we doing with obedience? I know that I don’t keep all the commands and that I often mess up, taking my own route and not His. In honest truth, we don’t deserve to be blessed because we don’t obey. The blessed list is void without obedience.
In old English, the word blēdsian (blessing) is derived from a word blōd ‘blood’. It is essential that we understand that blessing is linked with being marked by or consecrated with blood.
We don’t deserve to be blessed by GOD, but Jesus has made a way for us to find full blessing because his obedience was complete. His unwavering following of the law and commands, his obedience to go up that hill and die on that cross led to you and me being offered the chance to be marked with his blood. His obedience is the greatest blessing we can step into.
Help me Lord to have a heart that desires to be obedient and a life that is witness to your incredible and miraculous blessing that accompanies me. Amen
Katy 😉
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And that’s an Amen from me, too.
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Praying it again x
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