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| Life is Too Short for Disobedience |
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Greetings!
Today's devotion continues the series "Life is Too Short..." We have examined the brevity of life and the need to focus for success in our faith walk with God. Today we will be discussing disobedience.
God is serious about obedience and likewise disobedience. As such, life is too short for disobedience. In Deuteronomy 28:15-68, God calls the children of Israel to a life of obedience and provides the following warning for disobedience:
15 However, if you do not obey the LORD your God and do not carefully follow all his commands and decrees I am giving you today, all these curses will come on you and overtake you: 16 You will be cursed in the city and cursed in the country.
The curse continues for another 52 verses! Life is definitely too short for disobedience! If nothing else, we should love God and follow His commands because He has laid down such a massive warning. But, there is a higher purpose. We should obey not out of fear but out of love.
You can love enough to obey but you can never obey enough to love. Love is the foundation for obedience and the antithesis of disobedience. If we love God we obey God (John 14:21). Sure, we may slip and disobey but the heart of a Jesus follower is bent on obeying and pleasing God not rebelling and harming the relationship.
We need to turn from being a people that obey when it is convenient to a people that obey no matter what the cost. Could it be that our disobedience is keeping us from the best God has for us ... His will? The Bible confirms that when we seek God and obey that we discover His will and can walk in His ways, light and love (Romans 12:1-2). It is time for us to realize that life is too short for disobedience and to seek God for His will and ways and then be bold enough to obey. |
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Blessings of Obedience
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 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. 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 obedience to him. 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 ancestors 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.
~ Dueteronomy 28:1-15 ~ |
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Love Enough to Obey and God's Blessing will Overtake You
Life is too short for disobedience. Life is too short to discount the blessings of God due to disobedience. I remember the first time I read Deuteronomy 28 as if it were just a moment ago. I was a new follower of Jesus and reading the Old Testament. I recall sitting and reading from the New King James Version, "And all these blessings shall come upon you and overtake you, because you obey the voice of the Lord your God..." (Deuteronomy 28:2). Wow, the all of the blessings in Deuteronomy 28:1-15 will "overtake" me if I obey God.
My life before Christ as Savior and King was a life that was in great part very disobedient to God's will and ways. When I yielded to God's sovereign grace and love, life began to transform ... I began to transform. As I read this passage, I suddenly realized that life was too short for disobedience. True, I may sin but as much as possible I am going to try not to disobey God. I desired, and still desire, to live in obedience to the One who knows my every thought, word and deed (Psalm 139). After all, He has my "best" in mind and has a plan and purpose for me. Thus, life really is too short for disobedience.
Life is too short for disobedience not only because the obedient are blessed but because life is better when we obey God. We are all placed in situations where we can obey God or disobey. When you look back over your life history, it is easy to see that obedience always resulted in peace, greater grace and God's provision. The outcome may not have been what we "wanted" or "desired" but it was always good. A life of obedience is a good life.
Friend, obey God. Life is too short for disobedience and the loss of favor, blessing and peace that results. Often, we can mask our disobedience in sacrifice, giving or some religious act. This is nothing new. In fact, God also warned the children of Israel about this form of disobedience in 1 Samuel 15:22-24:
22 So Samuel said: "Has the LORD as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, As in obeying the voice of the LORD? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, And to heed than the fat of rams. 23 For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, And stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of the LORD, He also has rejected you from being king." 24 Then Saul said to Samuel, "I have sinned, for I have transgressed the commandment of the LORD and your words, because I feared the people and obeyed their voice.
Obey God. Learn of His ways and will by reading His Word and through prayer and discipleship. When you have a clear understanding of what God desires simply obey. You will be blessed and be a blessing to others and God will be glorified. Life is too short for anything less. |
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For King and Kingdom,
Randy Martin |
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