Set the Stage for a Blessing
1 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 upon 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. 9 The LORD will establish you as his holy people, as he promised you on oath, if you keep the commands of the LORD your God and walk in his ways. 10 Then all the peoples on earth will see that you are called by the name of the LORD, and they will fear you. 11 The LORD will grant you abundant prosperity—in the fruit of your womb, the young of your livestock and the crops of your ground—in the land he swore to your forefathers to give you. 12 The LORD will open the heavens, the storehouse of his bounty, to send rain on your land in season and to bless all the work of your hands. You will lend to many nations but will borrow from none. 13 The LORD will make you the head, not the tail. If you pay attention to the commands of the LORD your God that I give you this day and carefully follow them, you will always be at the top, never at the bottom. 14 Do not turn aside from any of the commands I give you today, to the right or to the left, following other gods and serving them.
Deuteronomy 28:1-12
Were you ever one of those people who thought that if I do this, this, this and this, then God will bless me with this? I used to be. When I was a kid I would pray so many novenas a day, repeat certain prayers to certain saints in a certain order, and read certain prayer cards over so many times in the hopes that the Lord would answer certain prayers in a certain way. Really, I did. When He didn’t answer the way I thought then I would attribute it to some mistake on my part. Maybe I fell asleep during a certain bit, or maybe I forgot that other bit. I was pretty superstitious and I had been taught that that was how God worked.
Once I grew up in Christ I learned that that is not His way, that He is not some slot machine, that you can’t play His numbers, yet I still had it in my head that if I prayed for something and it wasn’t happening then maybe I needed to DO something to make it happen. I was still wrong.
Much later I learned that if I am waiting on a blessing that He has promised and have the feeling that I forgot to do something then I better pray really hard. Sometimes I have messed something up and need to confess it, other times I have forgotten to do something that He has told me specifically to do, and still other times I need a lesson in patience and His timing.
So what is the difference? I used to think that I had to have everything prepared for God to bless me, that I had to get the right people, the right place, the right circumstance all set, in order for the blessing to be mine. I was trying to set the stage for the blessing.
Now I know that setting the stage for the blessing does not mean praying the right prayers in the right order, or getting so-and-so to talk to the other so-and-so about such-and-such. Instead, I set the stage when I get right with the Lord, when I am in His will, when I am focused completely on Him, and when I lose myself in Him. When I am in obedience, am loving Him with all my heart, soul, and mind, and when I love my neighbor as myself, then I have the stage set for a blessing.
What a relief. I must say that that is so much simpler than I thought, so much more enjoyable, so much more peaceful than agonizing over how many Our Fathers I said, whether I had prayed eight rosaries or was it nine, and did I remember to pray to St. Francis or whoever else might be able to help. Good to know that all I need to do is to trust and obey.
Lord, thank You for Your many blessings. Thank You that we need only trust and obey to be blessed by You. Thank You that we need not jump through hoops to get to You. Thank You that You are only a prayer away, that we need not travel anywhere to get to You, that we need no magic spell to ring You here, or to pray a special prayer to get Your ear. Thank You that through Your Son we can get to You, that we need not live by the Law but are free from its burden. Thank You for making Your way simple and Your burden light. Lord, help us to stay in Your will, not to stray, nor to think that we must go a long way to get to You. Lord, please remind each of us today that You are very real, very near, and that we need only to trust and obey to be near You. Lord, I pray that You would wrap Your everlasting arms around each of these dear ladies today and give them Your perfect and wonderful peace that is beyond all understand and open their eyes to the wonders of Your blessings.
How about you? Have you ever jumped through hoops to get to a blessing when you needed only to trust and obey?
* I wanted to add a special note of thanks here to Laurel Wreath who managed to get Trust and Obey by Alan Root severely stuck in my head with this post and which the Lord used to help spawn this post.
Ah yes. We sometimes still think that we need to add to His accomplished work. To be honest – I have used prayer cards on occasion. BUT – now I just have an open conversation with Him all day long…Much better than prayer a ‘preprinted’ prayer. Thank you for sharing those wonderful thoughts this morning :smile:.
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I learned this lesson during the process of becoming chosen for my oldest daughter when she was in the foster care system. It was only once I stopped DOING and started TRUSTING and relying on Him that I felt calm and peace come over me. I learned I just have to have faith…which is why her middle name is Faith!
I still tend to want to jump hoops. It is all about trust…
Wonderful Post!! Love and hugs, Lynn
I smiled as I read your post. I started out as a young Christian, very anxious to get the blessing of God. And so I did all I knew, trying to win His favor. What a joy to discover that He has: 1) already given me every spiritual blessing in Christ, and 2) couldn’t love me any more or any less, and 3) will never leave or forsake me. WOW. ‘Tis sweet to trust in Jesus, to simply trust and obey. You said it!