AP

Deuteronomy 29:9   Carefully follow the terms of this covenant, so that you may prosper in everything you do.

Reflecting on this verse causes me to marvel at two things: the unmeasurable goodness of our loving, sovereign God; and my own foolishness. I think of all the wonderful promises of God scattered throughout his revealed truth in the Bible, and his unchanging faithfulness in keeping them; especially, as the apostle Paul notes: “For no matter how many promises God has made, they are “Yes” in Christ.  And so through him the “Amen” is spoken by us to the glory of God” (2 Corinthians 1:20).
It is clear that he loves everythnig he has made, especially us, who are made in the very ‘image and likeness’ of God (Genesis 1:26).  

All this became very real to me in recent circumstances when I listened to the lyrics of Michael Smith’s song, ‘Sovereign Over Us’: “There is strength within the sorrow, there is beauty in our tears; and you meet us in our mourning with a love that casts out fear.  You are working in our waiting, you’re sanctifying us, when beyond our understanding you’re teaching us to trust. Your plans are still to prosper, you have not forgotten us; you’re with us in the fire and the flood; you’re faithful forever, perfect in love; you are sovereign over us. … … Even what the enemy means for evil you turn it for our good, you turn it for our good and for your glory; even in the valley, you are faithful, you’re working for our good, you’re working for our good and for your glory.”  Yes, what Moses reminded God’s Chosen People of as they entered the Promised Land, is marvelously, overwhelmingly, true: “Carefully follow the terms of this covenant, so that you may prosper in everything you do.”

In the light of all this, the other thing I marvel at is this: Why don’t I always ‘folow the trms of his covenant?  Why do I so often want to do things my way instead of his way?  Why does it even ever enter my thick head that I might think my way is better, when the promised, guaranteed, outcome of his way is that ‘I may prosper in everything I do’?
Lord, you have made a watertight covenant with me, and you have sealed this covenant with the precious blood of your own dear Son, the Lord Jesus Christ – so please take every opportunity, and use every circumstance, to drive home in my thick head, that the best path is to ‘carefully follow the terms of this covenant’ – your loving, compassionate, grace-filled, other-person-centred covenant, and not to ‘do it my way’!
– Bruce Christian