One of the verses I use in class is Deuteronomy 30:16 - "I command you today to love the Lord your God, to walk in His ways and to keep His commandments and His statutes and His judgments, that you may live and multiply, and that the Lord your God may bless you in the land where you are entering to possess it." This is, of course, Moses speaking to the Israelites just before his death, and he is making a statement of about God's promise for the future. If the Israelites will love God (and to love God is to keep His commandments), then He will bless them as they move into the Promised Land. Certainly, the land has been promised to them (via Abraham), but God is now saying, "I will not only give you this land, but I will also bless you in being there."
So, that's great for a group of (briefly) semi-nomadic laborers who are about to turn into farmers. What does this have to do with us? After all, we aren't about to enter into a new land and take it over! But, I would say to you that, in fact, you are entering new lands to possess them.
Think about it this way. God has a plan for our lives, things that He wants for us, and wants us to do. We are in school, or taking on new jobs, or what have you - whatever new thing it is, it is a "new land" that we are taking over. So, if we want to do well in this job, if we want God's blessing on our efforts, then we must love and obey Him. It's as simple as that. And of course it need not be only jobs or school - this can be with families, with churches, with anything. As we honor God in our actions, He honors and blesses us.
I want to encourage you to see your life as an adventure, a moving into new places, and in that encourage you to live in such a way that God pours out His blessings on you as it says in Luke 6:38 - "a good measure - pressed down, shaken together, and running over!"
Love,
Dad
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