God's Challenge And Blessing To His People

GOD’S CHALLENGES AND BLESSINGS FOR BELIEVERS

Text: Deuteronomy 11: 26-32

Introduction

Life naturally involves passing from one stage of life to another. Today as graduates, you are moving from one significant life stage into another. As you leave college, you are finally entering into the stage of life in which you control completely all of your choices. You control the direction of your lives by the choices that you will make. This is an exciting and wonderful time in life for you as a person and as a believer. The incredible life adventure of making your own way in the world and discovering the plan God has for you is filled with joy, wonder, miracles and blessings beyond description.

It is also a journey filled with opposition, enemies, struggles and potential failures. That is why God provides through his word direction, instruction, and promises to guide us and then journey. His word also provides us with many examples of people just like us preparing for the faith journey of stepping into a new stage of life. These examples help us see how God’s promises apply real life circumstances. These examples build our faith by showing us God is faithful to fulfill his promises to provide for our needs.

One of those examples is found in Deuteronomy 11:26-32. In this passage of Scripture, God is giving them a clear succinct summation of his promises and instructions to them that will prepare them for the journey of possessing the land he has promised them as their home. Israel has been redeemed from the bondage of slavery in Egypt. Any analogy between slavery and school will be left to you by the way. Israel has been promised a home of abundance and provision in which to build their families and their nation. In order to possess this land of abundance, they will have to step out in faith on God’s promise to them. They will find bounty, beauty, and a place in which they can flourish as a people and as individuals. They will also fund choices to follow God’s plan or different life philosophies. They will find hardships, enemies, and battles.

God gives them a detailed set of instructions and promises on how to live and make life choices. Then this passage he sums up his instructions to them. He gives him a set of challenges and a set of blessings. These challenges and blessings are directly applicable to you because you were facing a similar faith journey is the children.

God challenges you to …

A. Be Wise!

First God challenges his people to be wise. God asks them to “behold” what he sets before them. He wants them to stop and pay attention to the nature of his instructions for them. He asks them to “behold” that he is saying before them a blessing. This is a critically important challenge to anyone facing a major decision or new stage of life.

The foundation for every choice is the perspective with which you approach the decision. In fact, the perspective you use an approaching a decision often determines the outcome itself. God is challenging his people to approach every decision with the wisdom to understand that He loves them and has their best interests at heart in His plans for them. This is a constant theme in His instructions to his people throughout their history. It will be a constant theme in His instruction to you as well.

God understands that all of the worldly philosophies and choices they will face as they encounter other people and religions and Canaan will directly challenge his character as God. This began in the Garden of Eden with the first sinful choice. Satan confused and deceived Eve by creating doubt that God loved her. He lied to her by insinuating the idea that God was holding out benefits and blessings from her life. This doubt was the catalyst that caused her to search and then choose a way different than his instruction.

We face the same challenges today. Every decision make will require you to choose to do it God’s way or the world’s way. You will make choices with your finances, your relationships, your sexual purity, your free time, and your professional life. In each of these areas, the philosophies in today’s society will tug at you to mortgage your future or sacrifice your integrity because it is more appealing than God’s way of doing things. Be wise enough to understand that this is a challenge to the basic truth that God gives you His instructions because He loves you.

God understands this fact of living in a fallen world and therefore challenges us to be wise and remember that He sets before us blessings. God’s plans and instructions for your finances, relationships, professions, and person lives are designed to lead you to the blessings that He has for you. I challenge you to be wise enough to have a daily quiet time. It is in this time that you deepen your relationship with Jesus. This is the best time to learn that He loves you and has blessings for you because you are deepening your understanding of His person.