God loves to bless us because He loves us. The Bible says that we should praise God ‘who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ’ (Ephesians 1:3 NIV). But sometimes His blessing is conditional. That means we have to obey His commands before we receive the blessing. Moses gave the Israelites a list of the ways God was going to bless them (you can read that in Deuteronomy 28:3-13). But this list was preceded by these words: ‘All these blessings will come on you and accompany you if you obey the Lord your God.’ The word ‘if’ is really important here. It shows that the Israelites would only get the blessings if they obeyed God. It also shows that they had a choice. When we choose to obey God, we open ourselves up to receive more of His blessings. How much do we desire God’s blessings? How willing are we to obey His commands? Sometimes we can expect blessings without putting any effort in, but it’s clear that obedience is necessary. So how do we know what God wants us to do? We need to be spending time reading the Bible. We need to be listening to what He’s saying to us, and then acting on it. When Jonah heard God’s call, He ran the opposite way. Obedience means we follow God wherever He’s calling us, even when it seems challenging or we doubt ourselves. But we need to remember that obedience comes gradually. As humans we often desire to do our own thing and we can struggle to surrender our whole lives over to God. When we ask God to help us humble ourselves and obey Him, He’ll gradually transform us to live godly, obedient, and blessing-filled lives. 

What Now?

What’s God been asking you to do or change recently? Take one step forwards in obedience today.