PROMISES: A TWO FACED COIN

Hello there dear gist partner. 

How are you doing today? It is my hope that all is well with you and that if it isn’t, God fixed whatever it is that ails you. 

Today’s 2 months since my father passed on, can’t say it has been the easiest 2 months but God remains faithful and is our help, and yesterday I saw something in the Bible that reminded me of a lesson my father had taught me years ago and I thought to share. 

So, welcome to today’s gist. 

Deuteronomy 28 is a popular promise portion of scripture; even without knowing it, we have all claimed promises from this Chapter in our lives before, let me give you a sample of some such promises of blessings: “Blessed shall you be in the city, and blessed shall you be in the field. Blessed shall be the fruit of your womb and the fruit of your ground and the fruit of your cattle, the increase of your herds and the young of your flock. Blessed shall be your basket and your kneading bowl. Blessed shall you be when you come in, and blessed shall you be when you go out. “The Lord will cause your enemies who rise against you to be defeated before you. They shall come out against you one way and flee before you seven ways.” (Deuteronomy 28:3-7 ESV) Shey you have claimed, or at least been prayed, some or all of these promises before? These are of course not the only promises contained in the Chapter; God, through Moses, released some powerful blessings upon Israel here, blessings that we still desire all these thousands of years later. 

But here’s something really important, see what the verse preceding the ones I quoted up says: “And all these blessings shall come upon you and overtake you, if you obey the voice of the Lord your God.” (Deuteronomy 28:2 ESV) This means that there is a prerequisite to accessing the blessings that begin in verse 3: obedience to the voice of the Lord. So you see, it’s not an unconditional something, God has of course released the blessings -no strings attached- but for you to be able to access the blessings, you must obey! This means that you can’t expect to be disobedient to the voice of the Lord yet expect to receive blessings, that is an arrogant assumption that God will condone your disobedience and sin, which is in itself another sin. 

But if to say na just say disobedience go deny you access to the blessings, maybe e for better, but see what verse 15 says: “But if you will not obey the voice of the Lord your God or be careful to do all his commandments and his statutes that I command you today, then all these curses shall come upon you and overtake you.” (ESV) Then God, through Moses, goes on to list various terrifying curses that follow disobedience to God’s commandments as punishment (read from verse 16 you’ll see them). So you see, it is not just that disobedience will deny you blessings, it will attract curses to you –there’s no middle ground to be neither blessed nor cursed, you’re either one or the other. 

It is of course not God’s desire to curse you, His plans and desires for you will always be for good, not of evil (Jeremiah 29:11), it is where you are on the spectrum of obedience that will determine what you receive, that’s why Moses would go on to say: “See, I have set before you today life and good, death and evil…. I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse. Therefore choose life, that you and your offspring may live,” (Deuteronomy 30:15, 19 ESV). Because the choice is really ours to make, we are the ones that get to determine what we receive from the Lord by how we live our lives. 

Am I saying it is wrong to pray the manifestation of God’s blessings? No! God forbid that I will ever say such a thing, what I am saying however is that while you’re quick to claim the blessings, remember also that it is your obedience that grants you access to the blessings and your disobedience will attract curses to you, definitely; it’s not a probability issue, it is certain to be either one or the other, no middle ground. 

May God help us to be obedient to His voice. 

TUNES AND THOUGHTS: I was going to say ‘It is well’ again but our song for this week is the hymn “Sweet Hour of Prayer”, it is one of my father’s favourite hymns; I remember singing it as a child and not really understanding what it means but as I began to grow up, I realized that this song is a call to prayer, to spend time with the Lord and let Him speak to you, a reminder that time spent with God in prayer is one that strengthens, edifies and comforts you, it is an acknowledgment of the great importance of having a personal time with God. And in the last 2 months, I’ve meditated on the last stanza quite a lot, it goes “Sweet hour of prayer, sweet hour of prayer, May I thy consolation share. Till from Mount Pisgah’s lofty height, I view my home and take my flight. This robe of flesh I’ll drop and rise, to seize the everlasting prize, and shout while passing through the air, “Farewell, farewell sweet hour of prayer!”” Prayer will hold you through life, and prayer will see you safely to God in Heaven or as Theophilus Sunday sang: “when I leave this world, I will go in prayer”. This is especially dear to me because as I watched my father lose consciousness, he kept repeating “Ojodomo”: “God is here”; even in those final moments of his consciousness, he didn’t lose touch with his Father, he remained in communion till he got to see Jesus face-to-face and I’ll forever be grateful to have watched him live this hymn. 

May our hearts remain drawn to prayer. 

Well, that is that about that as far as that is concerned, see you next week!

Love,

Achenyo.