ICS Daily Devotions
Choices We Make
Deut 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.
“Choosing life” in this verse essentially boils down to choosing to walk with God, to love Him and walk in His ways, and when we do that, we will be blessed. God stated plainly the options of either “life and blessing” or “death and destruction”, and intentionally asked the Israelites to choose life which leads to blessings. God wasn’t ashamed of them being blessed because they are God’s people just as we are God’s children.
God says that if the Israelites were to abide by the covenant terms under the Mosaic covenant and walk in God’s ways, they would enjoy the blessings that God has promised them, which cover the body, the work of their hands, their livestock, and the produce of their land.
Deut 28:9-10 The LORD your God will make you abound in all the work of your hand, in the fruit of your body, in the increase of your livestock, and in the produce of your land for good. For the LORD will again rejoice over you for good as He rejoiced over your fathers, if you obey the voice of the LORD your God, to keep His commandments and His statutes which are written in this Book of the Law, and if you turn to the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul.
Many of us are working very hard in the corporate world to try to get somewhere, but if it is not God’s way, it is vanity of vanities—chasing after the wind. Therefore, it is better to follow the ways of the Lord so that we will still be strong and stable when we prosper due to His blessings but also when we lose certain things in life. The paradigm is very different.
God rejoices over us when we walk in His ways and are blessed by Him. He has no problem being seen as the provider of everything we have and the one who blesses us. The only thing He does not want is for us to walk away from Him and proudly think that it is our own abilities that have caused us to be successful.
Psa 35:27 Let them shout for joy and be glad, Who favor my righteous cause; And let them say continually, ” Let the LORD be magnified, Who has pleasure in the prosperity of His servant.”
Sermon Series: Choices
