The Challenge
Spend a few minutes reading, praying, and meditating on the following verses:
Jeremiah 17:5 Thus says the Lord: “Cursed is the man who trusts in man and makes flesh his strength, Whose heart departs from the Lord….7 “Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, And whose hope is the Lord.
Deuteronomy 28: 2 And all these blessings shall come upon you and overtake you, because you obey the voice of the Lord your God….15 “But it shall come to pass, if you do not obey the voice of the Lord your God, to observe carefully all His commandments and His statutes which I command you today, that all these curses will come upon you and overtake you.
Challenge: In your journal (or here https://www.quiettime.today/journal) write down the things that cause anxiety, stress, or lack of blessings in your life. For each of them, think about the underlying reason that causes the anxiety, and how perhaps you may not be trusting or obeying God in that area. Then pray to God, and during your prayer, ask God to reveal how you can trust and obey Him more. Visualize yourself placing each of these things into God’s hands. Tell Him that you are trusting Him and not yourself, for the outcome and that you will obey His voice in how He will lead you.
Bonus verse
Psalm 84:11 For the Lord God is a sun and shield; the Lord will give grace and glory; no good thing will He withhold from those who walk uprightly. 12 O Lord of hosts, blessed is the man who trusts in You!
More information: https://www.quiettime.today/blog/challenge-9
More Information:
God desires to bless us. The abundant life that Christ came to give us is experienced when God blesses us. God’s blessings are conditional, and there are in essence only two things we have to do to experience God’s blessings: trust and obey. What happens when we do not trust and obey? Not only do we miss out on God’s blessings, we actually get cursings from Him instead. This is one of the most important lessons we need to learn about God. There is no neutral ground. We either experience His blessings because we trust and obey, or we experience His cursings, because we do not trust not obey. Below are the verses which unequivocally demonstrate this truth about God.
Deuteronomy 30:19 I call heaven and earth as witnesses today against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore choose life, that both you and your descendants may live;
Deuteronomy 28:1 “Now it shall come to pass, if you diligently obey the voice of the Lord your God, to observe carefully all His commandments which I command you today, that the Lord your God will set you high above all nations of the earth. 2 And all these blessings shall come upon you and overtake you, because you obey the voice of the Lord your God. (Verses 3-14 detail all the blessings)
Deuteronomy 28:15 “But it shall come to pass, if you do not obey the voice of the Lord your God, to observe carefully all His commandments and His statutes which I command you today, that all these curses will come upon you and overtake you. (Verses 16-68 detail all the cursings).
Jeremiah 17:5 Thus says the Lord: “Cursed is the man who trusts in man And makes flesh his strength, Whose heart departs from the Lord. 6 For he shall be like a shrub in the desert, And shall not see when good comes, But shall inhabit the parched places in the wilderness, In a salt land which is not inhabited. 7 “Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, And whose hope is the Lord. 8 For he shall be like a tree planted by the waters, Which spreads out its roots by the river, And will not fear when heat comes; But its leaf will be green, And will not be anxious in the year of drought, Nor will cease from yielding fruit. 9 “The heart is deceitful above all things, And desperately wicked; Who can know it? 10 I, the Lord, search the heart, I test the mind, Even to give every man according to his ways, According to the fruit of his doings.
These verses teach us some neat extra things, in addition to the above mentioned truth that God will bless us when we trust and obey, and curse if we don’t. First, we see that God sees life and death very similar to blessings and cursings. Life is blessing, death is cursing. Second, that we have a free-will choice to choose one or the other. Third, there is no middle ground, no neutral state. We will experience either one or the other. Fourth, God is more specific about the curses than the blessings, we tend to respond stronger to fear of bad things happening to us than to the hope that good things may befall us. And fifth, it is about the state of our heart. If our heart is right before God, if our innermost self, our deepest thoughts, feelings, and desires, are for God, then we will receive good from God. But if they are deceitful and self-centered, rather than God and other-centered, then we will receive bad from God.
There is one problem that causes us to not fully grasp and understand these incredibly important life lessons, and that is time. The blessings and cursing do not happen immediately. How easy would be it be to trust and obey God if we received blessings or cursings immediately. But that is not how it works. God is gracious and does not punish our disobedience right away. He gives us time and warnings to turn back to Him. He also tests us and uses the time to develop a deeper and more intimate relationship with us.
The promises of blessings and cursings for obedience and trust above are from the old testament and were part of the OT covenant that God made with Israel. With the coming of Christ and the NT covenant, the timeline for these blessings and cursings has changed. They will now come to full completion in heaven, so the time delay between our actions and the promised consequences may be delayed even more. And the type of the blessings has shifted a bit, from the more tangible material blessings in the OT, to the less tangible, spiritual blessings in the NT. So the particulars of time and content have changed, But the overall principles above are still very much valid for this life as well.
Mark 10:29 So Jesus answered and said, “Assuredly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or lands, for My sake and the gospel’s, 30 who shall not receive a hundredfold now in this time—houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands, with persecutions—and in the age to come, eternal life.
2 Corinthians 5:9 Therefore we make it our aim, whether present or absent, to be well pleasing to Him. 10 For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive the things done in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad.
1 Corinthians 3:11 For no other foundation can anyone lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. 12 Now if anyone builds on this foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, 13 each one’s work will become clear; for the Day will declare it, because it will be revealed by fire; and the fire will test each one’s work, of what sort it is. 14 If anyone’s work which he has built on it endures, he will receive a reward. 15 If anyone’s work is burned, he will suffer loss; but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire.
Galatians 6:7 Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap. 8 For he who sows to his flesh will of the flesh reap corruption, but he who sows to the Spirit will of the Spirit reap everlasting life.
So the lesson is clear. Make sure that you trust and obey God, and the abundant and eternal life is yours. And God can be trusted, because He is good and faithful, and will keep His promises.
Psalm 84:11 For the Lord God is a sun and shield; the Lord will give grace and glory; no good thing will He withhold from those who walk uprightly. 12 O Lord of hosts, blessed is the man who trusts in You!
Romans 8:28 And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.
All this gets summed up pretty neatly in the following song:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4dh02OnJpIE
When we walk with the Lord in the light of His Word,
What a glory He sheds on our way!
While we do His good will, He abides with us still,
And with all who will trust and obey.
Trust and obey, for there's no other way
To be happy in Jesus, but to trust and obey.
Not a shadow can rise, not a cloud in the skies,
But His smile quickly drives it away;
Not a doubt or a fear, not a sigh or a tear,
Can abide while we trust and obey.
Trust and obey, for there's no other way
To be happy in Jesus, but to trust and obey.
Then in fellowship sweet we will sit at His feet.
Or we'll walk by His side in the way.
What He says we will do, where He sends we will go;
Never fear, only trust and obey.
Trust and obey, for there's no other way
To be happy in Jesus, but to trust and obey.
Oh, Trust and obey, for there's no other way
To be happy in Jesus, but to trust and obey.
And 'Tis so sweet to trust in Jesus,
Just to take Him at His Word;
Just to rest upon His promise,
Just to know, "Thus saith the Lord!"
Jesus, Jesus, how I trust Him!
How I've proved Him o'er and o'er;
Jesus, Jesus, precious Jesus!
Oh, for grace to trust Him more!
Oh, for grace to trust You more!
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