Week Twelve: Blessed or Cursed
This Week’s Readings
Day 1: Deuteronomy 16-18
Day 2: Deuteronomy 19-21
Day 3: Psalms 18-21
Day 4: Deuteronomy 22-25
Day 5: Deuteronomy 26-28
Day 6: Psalms 22-25
Day 7: Catch up
Reflections
Have you positioned yourself to be blessed? Are you listening and doing? Has the been difficult to do? Why?
Have you ever felt like you were more cursed than blessed? How did you reverse the curse?
Reflections from The Bible in 52 Weeks by Dr. Kimberly Moore
GraceNotes - My Reflections
Deuteronomy 28:3 NIV, Deuteronomy 28:13 NIV
“You will be blessed in the city and blessed in the country.”
“The Lord will make you the head, not the tail. If you pay attention to the commands of the Lord your God that I give you this day and carefully follow them, you will always be at the top, never at the bottom.”
Growing up, my parents confessed these words of blessings over me and my siblings, and now, as I watch my little ones grow, I find myself praying the same over them. But here's the catch: blessings come hand in hand with obedience. Just like a choose-your-own-adventure story, God offered the Israelites a choice: follow His path and be showered with blessings, or stray and face the consequences. It dawned on me recently, as I read through those verses, that the blessings are like a sweet melody, spanning 14 verses, while the curses stretch from verse 15 to 68... That's a lot of verses! It got me thinking about how much easier life could be if we just followed His lead. Everything He guides us to do is for our own good, after all. Sure, obedience might sometimes feel like a tug-of-war with our own desires, but trust me, it's worth it. The weight of those curses, spanning 53 whole verses, is a vivid reminder of the real struggles we face when we go our own way.
Psalms 22:1 NIV
“My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from saving me, so far from my cries of anguish?”
Have you heard these words before; the same words Jesus spoke as He was on the cross. Reading through this chapter was Dejavu in more ways than one. But it made me consider how often we as Christians feel abandoned by God — even Jesus felt* a sense of abandonment. But the glory in this, is that our feelings, while valid, are not always the full picture of our current state in life. Even in the midst of David and Jesus feeling abandonment, they were able to look to back on God’s goodness and know that He is trustworthy. Let’s continue to recall His faithfulness even in the seasons of wilderness. It may not always feel easy to follow God, but it’s always worth it, because He always comes through.
Psalms 23:2-6 NIV
“
He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside quiet waters, he refreshes my soul. He guides me along the right paths for his name’s sake. Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows. Surely your goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.”
Hey Ladies! Drop your revelations, thoughts, and those lightbulb "aha" moments right down there in the comment section! Let's create a space to spill the beans on how God is throwing us some divine vibes as we dive deep into His word. Time to share the spiritual tea!
