Rebekah 5

Deuteronomy 11:26-28

Of all Rebekah's qualities we've looked at this week... strength, hospitality, kindness... obedience is the one that God requires and rewards the most. As we saw yesterday, Rebekah is obedient to God's plan and she is blessed in ways that she never could have imagined, even long after her life had ended her descendents still consider her one of the most important women in their history.

Belonging to God is sort of a blessing and curse. When we say "I will go" to God, we enter into a covenant with him. When we are obedient, we are blessed. When we are disobedient, we are cursed. So simple and yet so difficult sometimes.

So what are the other gods we sometimes follow? I'll let you make that list for yourself, but for me it can be my schedule, my money, my pride, anything I put before the one true God... anything that would keep me from being obedient.

Throughout Deuteronomy God tells his people how he will bless them if they are just obedient to his commands. They will have strength and live a long time. They will be successful in all they do. But since everything they are doing is commanded by God, it sort of makes sense. This is not a selfish prosperity, but a reward of being right where God wants you to be.

It's hard to be a young girl and head off with a stranger to a place you've never seen to marry someone you've never met. It's REALLY hard to be a teenaged girl and find out you've been chosen to bear the child of God (in a culture that murders unwed pregnant women still). What we are asked to do probably compares in these opportunities for obedience. But we are still called to obey God.

DAILY CHALLENGE: Do you feel blessed or cursed? Are you in the center of where God wants you to be? Pray and ask God for his guidance so that you can be obedient.