Enjoying the Blessing

Let’s look at the list of curses in Deuteronomy 28. Read this entire chapter for yourself, considering whether you are enjoying a blessing or enduring a curse. If we are redeemed children of God, the curses do not belong to us, but the blessings do. Let us focus particularly on those blessings and curses related to wealth and poverty:

“If you do not obey the voice of the Lord your God, to observe carefully all His commandments and His statutes which I command you today, that all these curses will come upon you and overtake you:... Cursed shall be your basket and your kneading bowl... You shall grope at noonday, as a blind man gropes in darkness; you shall not prosper in your ways... Because you did not serve the Lord your God with joy and gladness of heart, for the abundance of everything, therefore you shall serve your enemies, whom the Lord will send against you, in hunger, in thirst, in nakedness, and in need of everything; and He will put a yoke of iron on your neck until He has destroyed you.” (Deuteronomy 28:15, 17, 29, 47–48)

The will of God is expressed in verse 47—that we should serve the Lord our God with joy and gladness of heart for the abundance of all things. Abundance is a beautiful word that occurs many times in the Bible. In essence, it means you have all you need, and then some—you have blessings left over for others. The will of God is that we, as His people, should serve Him with joy and gladness for the abundance of all things He gives to us.