Are you choosing a curse and not even realizing it?

Today we will tackle an uncomfortable question, are you choosing a curse and not even realizing it?  Just to be clear, I am using the term "curse" more as a metaphor to drive home an important warning for everyone, including myself.

God Created You to Bless You Not to Curse You

Before we were even born, when the Lord chose us in Him before the foundations of the world, He set aside our time in the fragment of life on earth.  He specifically chose that time and that space for the works He had planned for us to do and determined where we would have our own special impact for the cause of Christ.

Every minute of every day is meant to be lived, loving the Lord,  choosing to walk in all His ways and choosing to hold fast to Him...

Choosing to Hold Fast to the Lord Avoids the Curse

For if you will be careful to do all this commandment that I command you to do, loving the Lord your God, walking in all his ways, and holding fast to him,  then the Lord will drive out all these nations before you, and you will dispossess nations greater and mightier than you.

Deuteronomy 11:22-23

With all of today's distractions, how do we hold fast to the Lord?

If we go about this in practical terms, we might think of how our minds operate when we are reading a good book or engrossed in a good movie.  Our minds are staying focused on that which has captured our attention, on that which we are enjoying.  Nothing else enters into our minds, no distractions, no temptations.  We are absorbing that which we are focused on.  In the same way, we should pray and read our Bibles.

Yet how many of us will say that when we are praying or spending time in the Word, our minds DO wander or sinful thoughts DO enter in.  I don't know about you, but I will be in the middle of praying and some horrible thought enters my mind and I think, "Where did that come from?!?!"

I would venture to say that when we are watching a good movie or reading a good book, we are not a threat to Satan or his cause in that moment.  Yet when we set out to pray or spend time in the Word, that is when Satan goes into high gear to distract us from Almighty God.

But for this post's purposes, holding fast brings about an essence of being consumed by God and His Word.   To be consumed by God and His Word is to first and foremost BE in the Word.  Regardless of whether Satan taunts you and tries to distract you in your Bible reading, keep at it!  Or whether prayer does not come easy due to a wandering mind, keep at it!  For there is a promise that goes along with the verse I shared above and that is that the Lord will drive out our enemies!  He will go before us when the prayer of our hearts is to be consumed by Him.  He WILL remove all distractions and sinful thoughts when we set our hearts on God.  Nothing will be able to stand against us or cause us to stumble.

Can Your Choices Bring a Curse Upon You?

When we don't spend time in prayer and in the Word, we WILL stumble.  We WILL be taunted and tempted which makes us discontent and anxious.

{I wrote more about the danger of succumbing to temptations in my post Sober Up! which you can read HERE.}

It will be even worse for us when we disobey God's commands...

See, I am setting before you today a blessing and a curse: the blessing, if you obey the commandments of the Lord your God, which I command you today, and the curse, if you do not obey the commandments of the Lord your God, but turn aside from the way that I am commanding you today, to go after other gods that you have not known."

Deuteronomy 11:26-28

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary shared the following about these verses...

"Moses sets before them, for the future, life and death, the blessing and the curse, according as they did or did not keep God's commandment. Sin tends to shorten the days of all men, and to shorten the days of a people's prosperity. God will bless them with an abundance of all good things, if they would love him and serve him. Godliness has the promise of the life that now is; but the favour of God shall put gladness into the heart, more than the increase of corn, and wine, and oil. Revolt from God to idols would certainly be their ruin. Take heed that your hearts be not deceived. All who forsake God to set their affection upon any creature, will find themselves wretchedly deceived, to their own destruction; and this will make it worse, that it was for want of taking heed."

Not only does sin shorten the good times because we are either so discontent we are missing the moments right in front of us or so anxious we are paralyzed, but we will NEVER be happy when we are living in our sin.  It's as if a curse has been placed upon us.  Again, speaking metaphorically here...

And if we have chosen to ignore the gift of Salvation through God's Son Jesus Christ, then we risk spending eternity in misery separated from God.

Will You Choose the Blessing or the Curse?

As described in the verses above, God sets before us a choice.  We can either enjoy blessings or suffer the side-effects of the curses of disobedience.  Do we choose the blessing or the curse?

“Now therefore fear the Lord and serve him in sincerity and in faithfulness. Put away the gods that your fathers served beyond the River and in Egypt, and serve the Lord. And if it is evil in your eyes to serve the Lord, choose this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your fathers served in the region beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”

Joshua 24:14-15

If there is anyone out there reading this who has not entered into a personal relationship with Jesus, who is depending on their own merits and works to get into Heaven.   God says...

he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness,

 but according to his own mercy, 

by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit,

Titus 3:5

For it is by grace you have been saved through faith, 

and this not from yourselves; 

it is the gift of God, not by works, so that no one can boast. 

Ephesians 2:9

The Lord did this for you!!  Jesus already paid the price and finished the work on the cross.  All you now need to do is trust that He died for your sins,  that He rose from the dead and is seated at the right hand of the Father waiting for the time that He will come back and bring all those who have died in Christ to live with Him in Paradise.  Before He returns for you, get involved with a solid church, seek out someone to disciple you and teach you how to study the Word and to pray; daily walk away from your sinful bents and walk in the newness of life that Christ redeemed for you. By choosing Christ you will not live in the curse of eternity separated from God, but in the promise of eternal life with Jesus.

If there is anyone out there that doesn't believe God exists, God has loving direction for you....

For ever since the world was created, people have seen the earth and sky. 

Through everything God made, 

they can clearly see his invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature. 

So they have no excuse for not knowing God. 

Romans 1:20 

The Lord desires very much to know you!  That is why He showed Himself through the earth and all that is in it.  Through every creature and every plant, through the ebb and flow of the tide, through the rising and setting of the sun, He desires to make Himself known to you!

Test Him in this.

You will seek me and find me, 

when you seek me with all your heart.

Jeremiah 29:13

By choosing Christ, surrendering your life and praying as I outlined above, He will reveal Himself to you in amazing ways.  You will have no fear of the curse of being separated from God forever.

            

For the children of God, we too have a daily choice, choosing the blessing or the curse.  Are we choosing to obey the Lord?  When we fall into sin, and we WILL, do we immediately run to the Lord and confess, keeping short accounts?  Do we hold fast to the Lord?  

Then we will receive blessing upon blessing.

I wanted to leave this post with a few more words of wisdom from Matthew Henry's concise commentary on the verses we have been talking about today...

Let all be directed by the three rules here given. 

1. Let our hearts be filled with the word of God. There will not be good practices in the life, unless there be good thoughts, good affections, and good principles in the heart. 

2. Let our eyes be fixed upon the word of God, having constant regard to it as the guide of our way, as the rule of our work, Psalm 119:30. 

3. Let our tongues be employed about the word of God. Nor will any thing do more to cause prosperity, and keeping up religion in a nation, than the good education of children.

Love will work in obedience, and that only is acceptable obedience which flows from a principle of love, love for God.

When we let go of self and seek to live our lives for Christ, with the Lord going before us, we WILL be victorious and accomplish ALL the works the Lord has set aside for us to do and enjoy His many blessings this side of Heaven.

By choosing to walk in obedience you will never need to fear the curse.

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