Believe It Or Not Week 6: Wednesday

If you fully obey the Lord your God and carefully keep all his commands that I am giving you today, the Lord your God will set you high above all the nations of the world. Deuteronomy 28:1

Growing up, I loved reading “Choose Your Own Adventure” books. Have you read them before? They are so fun for kids because you get to make decisions that ultimately affect the outcome of the story you are reading. It’s fun to pick and choose elements of the story and find out the ultimate outcome of the story. It’s a great way to spark creativity as well. This concept of picking and choosing the path to take is great for a children’s book but not-so-great in real life, especially in our faith. When it comes to our path and knowing God’s plan, it can be tempting to pick and choose the instructions and teachings He gives us in Scripture that we will obey and ignore the instructions and teachings that He gives us, especially those we don’t like. This is not how God calls us to live. Unlike a “choose your own adventure book,” we know from Scripture the outcome of ignoring certain instructions from God equals destruction. 

The people of Israel learned the importance of following all of God’s instructions in Deuteronomy 28. Moses, the leader of Israel at the time, said to them, “If you fully obey the Lord your God and carefully keep all his commands that I am giving you today, the Lord your God will set you high above all the nations of the world” (verse 1). Notice the emphasis in this verse on full obedience and keeping all of God’s commandments in this verse. Every part of Scripture is significant and calls for obedience. We do not get to choose which Scripture we want to follow and ignore the rest.

Moses also explained the outcome for the Israelites if they obeyed or chose to disobey the commands God gave in Deuteronomy 28. It was clear that if the Israelites obeyed, things would go well with them, and if they did not obey, they would face destruction. In other words, God would honor their obedience, and they would face the consequences of their disobedience. The same is true with us. God honors our obedience. This does not mean we will get everything we want and never face hardships on this earth. It does, however, mean that we will experience peace with God as we do His will. 

My friends, God has given us His word for a reason, and all of His word is important. Therefore, may we pay attention to all of it. As we do this, we will be able to discern and understand God’s will for our lives.

Moving Toward Action

Write out a prayer of thankfulness to God. Thank Him for His word. Thank Him that He provides Scripture so that we can know how He calls us to live. Commit to paying attention to all of Scripture and following it as well.

Going Deeper

Deuteronomy 28:1-19 (NLT)