The Cause and Effect of it All
Deuteronomy 28:1-20 Amplified Bible (AMP)
28 If you will listen diligently to the voice of the Lord your God, being watchful to do all His commandments which I command you this day, the Lord your God will set you high above all the nations of the earth. 2 And all these blessings shall come upon you and overtake you if you heed the voice of the Lord your God. 3 Blessed shall you be in the city and blessed shall you be in the field. 4 Blessed shall be the fruit of your body and the fruit of your ground and the fruit of your beasts, the increase of your cattle and the young of your flock.5 Blessed shall be your basket and your kneading trough. 6 Blessed shall you be when you come in and blessed shall you be when you go out. 7 The Lord shall cause your enemies who rise up against you to be defeated before your face; they shall come out against you one way and flee before you seven ways. 8 The Lord shall command the blessing upon you in your storehouse and in all that you undertake. And He will bless you in the land which the Lord your God gives you. 9 The Lord will establish you as a people holy to Himself, as He has sworn to you, if you keep the commandments of the Lord your God and walk in His ways. 10 And all people of the earth shall see that you are called by the name [and in the presence of] the Lord, and they shall be afraid of you. 11 And the Lord shall make you have a surplus of prosperity, through the fruit of your body, of your livestock, and of your ground, in the land which the Lord swore to your fathers to give you. 12 The Lord shall open to you His good treasury, the heavens, to give the rain of your land in its season and to bless all the work of your hands; and you shall lend to many nations, but you shall not borrow. 13 And the Lord shall make you the head, and not the tail; and you shall be above only, and you shall not be beneath, if you heed the commandments of the Lord your God which I command you this day and are watchful to do them. 14 And you shall not turn aside from any of the words which I command you this day, to the right hand or to the left, to go after other gods to serve them. 15 But if you will not obey the voice of the Lord your God, being watchful to do all His commandments and His statutes which I command you this day, then all these curses shall come upon you and overtake you: 16 Cursed shall you be in the city and cursed shall you be in the field. 17 Cursed shall be your basket and your kneading trough. 18 Cursed shall be the fruit of your body, of your land, of the increase of your cattle and the young of your sheep. 19 Cursed shall you be when you come in and cursed shall you be when you go out. 20 The Lord shall send you curses, confusion, and rebuke in every enterprise to which you set your hand, until you are destroyed, perishing quickly because of the evil of your doings by which you have forsaken me [Moses and God as one].
There was a quote I posted on my Facebook page yesterday that simply said, “People need to learn that their actions do affect other people. So be careful what you say and do, it’s not always just about you.” This quote was something that screamed to what I have all too often seen in people and experienced from people. It’s all too often that we do not think that there will be any consequences to our actions; we think what we say and do no matter how we act or respond in life, that it should be good and people should just conform to what they desire. We often think that our actions and words have no effect on people, relationships or the benefits produced by those relationships. It is all too often that people do not look at cause and effect of much that they do, say and even think. I have heard people say this is just the way I am, and if you don’t like it oh well, but for one moment what if the treatment, attitude and behavior you are extending to others was being given to you, if the shoe was on the other foot, would it be safe to say that our responses would be, for every action there is a reaction and that we all deserve a certain level of consideration and courtesy?
As with the children of Israel, I have met people with lack of consideration and conscious awareness for anyone other than self. But more critical of a state is when we conduct ourselves like this with God. God has given us so many benefits that can be ours, if we just follow and submit to His ways and conduct ourselves as He has requested that we do, but instead, we would rather do it our way, we would rather get mad at God when our situation is cursed, instead of examining our contribution to the effect that we are receiving. We totally miss the lessons that we needed to learn to receive the benefits of God, we just carry on, business as usual, caught up in our own agenda. Why would we want to act like we act with the expectation that God will reward us? Many of us live by the motto, “I treat people the way they treat me,” but yet we will not treat people the way that we want to be treated, and we take an even more offensive stand as it concerns our relationship with God, and yet we do not want Him to treat us the way we treat Him. We also adopt an out of sight of mind attitude with God; we think our living does not affect how we are blessed or not blessed and how we receive from people and from God and how God will respond to us…As I tell my children all of the time “you cannot have it both ways, either you are going to be obedient and reap the benefits or you are going to run this thing and reap what you doing you produces.”
There are rules and regulations, boundaries and considerations that apply to every relationship to include the one that we have with God. Our will, will produce our results, our obedience will produce the benefits of God in our lives. Just as when we learn to treat people well and to not be so inconsiderate, judgmental, and nasty or out of pocket that we will reap the harvest of those actions. We have to know if we build an altar to ourselves, we will be cursed, but if we bow in humble submission to the ways of God we will reap the benefit of His promises, His love and grace towards us!
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