Deuteronomy 28:12-14; The Lord will open his storehouse where he keeps his rich blessings. He will send rain at the right time for your land. He will bless everything you do. You will have money to lend to many nations. And you will not need to borrow anything from them.  The Lord will make you be like the head, not the tail. You will be on top, not on the bottom. This will happen if you listen to the commands of the Lord your God that I tell you today. You must carefully obey these commands.  You must not turn away from any of the teachings that I give you today. You must not turn away to the right or to the left. You must not follow other gods to serve them.

Have you ever noticed that each time God promises blessing, there is always ‘our part’? An ‘if you will do’ kind of stipulation? As I looked at this wonderful promise of blessing which actually begins in verse 1, I noticed a very key phrase that ran through the whole blessing; obedience. You don’t have to do good to get good, that’s not what I’m talking about. I’m talking about obeying the voice of God.

It seems that our relationship with God has become very ‘one way’ and that’s ‘our way’.  We expect God to perform for us, bless us when we need something, heal us when we’re hurting, but we don’t want to listen and obey. We want the goods without paying the price. Don’t bother us, God, we’re too busy! We think that Jesus paid it all so we can just live the good life and do what we want, spending as much as we want and not have to do anything. That’s entitlement mentality! We’ve adapted the world way of thinking. Jesus did pay it all and because of that price he paid, I owe him my very life. Obedience to what He asks of me is the very least I can do for him.

How sad that we treat Jesus’ sacrifice as ‘that was nice’ and move on to our own agenda. We think that getting married and raising a family is for OUR benefit, it’s not. It’s to raise up disciples of Christ to go make more disciples. We think that having a job is to take care of us and our family, it’s not. God gives seed to the sower and bread to the eater, but his goal in giving us a job is for others; HE wants to provide for us. The place you work is your mission field not your social field. As the Remnant bride of Christ, we are to make ourselves ready for our Groom by learning his voice and submitting to his voice. 

John 14:3, Jesus says; “After I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back. Then I will take you with me, so that you can be where I am.” He’s coming! Are you ready? Back in 1965, The Impressions did a song entitled, “People Get Ready”. It went like this:

So people, get ready. Jesus is coming.
Soon we’ll be going home.
People get ready
Jesus is coming to take from the world his own.

My dear friend, if he’s preparing a place for us and He’s coming soon, we need to get ourselves cleaned up and ready. We need to learn to listen and obey so that we can hear him when he calls us home. 

Father, my heart is set on obeying your voice, not just when it’s easy, but when it’s hard. I need to trust that you know what you’re doing and I don’t. That I can only see a little distance when you can see my future. I submit and surrender to your plans for me without complaint. I won’t be a disgruntled employee but a faithful daughter that you find pleasure in. I commit my way to you because I’m assured of your great love for me. In Jesus’ name, Amen.