"If you fully obey the Lord your God and carefully keep all his commands that I am giving you today, the Lord your God will set you high above all the nations of the world. You will experience all these blessings if you obey the Lord your God: Deuteronomy 28:1 NLT)

All God's promises and blessings are conditional.

God is faithful to answer all his promises, yet there is a little word that determines whether we will see the fulfillment of the promise, and that word is if—if we are obedient.

Life is a cooperative venture between God and us. Moses told Israel that they would fulfill the promises if they remained obedient to God. When I worked as a missionary, we had a saying, you do the possible and expect God do the impossible. We often get what we should do and what God should do reversed. When we try to do what only God can do, we become frustrated.  When we wait for God to do what we should be doing, we become lazy.

We must pray and work and, yes, obey. Do what God tells us to do when he tells us to do it. When Joshua was ready to go into the promised land, God said he would give him the land—now go in and fight for it. Even Moses, due to disobedience, was not permitted to cross the Jordan River into the promised land.  God is no respecter of persons.

We should remember, as Moses did, our propensity to disobey. We get it honestly from our ancestors, Adam and Eve. From the very beginning, it's been willful disobedience that has been our downfall. If God has given you a promise, fulfillment comes by your willingness to obey him in detail. Obedience always brings a blessing.

I worked for seventeen years as a missionary with Youth With A Mission.  My missionary work has taken me to Mexico, Canada, Chile, Argentina, Bolivia, Spain, and Ukraine.  I hold a Masters of Education in curriculum and instruction from Virginia Commonwealth University.  [email protected]