Keep It Simple: Repent

“You must serve only the LORD your God. If you do, I will bless you with food and water, and I will protect you from illness. There will be no miscarriages or infertility in your land, and I will give you long, full lives. [Exodus 23.25-26]

As complex as God is, He really knows how to keep it simple for us. In the promise above, God pretty much covered everything that mattered to life: food, water, health, and wealth (miscarriages and infertility were not only a human concern, but livestock also - thus wealth).

Compare the passage above to something Jesus said:

Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need. [Matthew 6.33]

Is there a pattern? I most certainly think so!

The phrases "serve only the LORD your God" and to "seek first the Kingdom of God above all else" are unsurprisingly consistent in their respective meanings. The bottom line is that God wants to be first in everything. Yes, everything. And, the reward for putting God first in everything is His complete and thorough blessing on every aspect of our lives.

So the question begs to be asked, "Why do we not see this kind of blessing so much today?"

The answer depends upon whether we want the "simple" answer (like God's "simple" promise), or we would rather delve into the complexities of religion.

The simple answer is that we do not experience God's blessings because we are not seeking Him above all else.

The complex religious answer is that there is no way we could "not" be living up to God's standards and therefore "not" be blessed, so, it concludes there are very complex reasons God does what He does (or does not do). The complex answer explains that both God is mysterious and often misunderstood. The complex answer is just complex. But at the end of the complex answer there remains no blessings - just a God Who does what He wants to do regardless of our response to Him.

What if we just kept it simple? What if, when we experience "less than blessings" we just repented? And, what if we just stayed in that attitude of repentance until we see blessings?

The fact is, no one I know wants to repent that much!! So then, another obvious question must be asked... "Why?"

Why indeed. The reason we don't want to repent is pride. Plain and simple. Oh, we don't mind giving repentance "a try" but when we don't get the immediate gratification of the results we want, we declare that we have held up our end of the bargain and so, God must be "up to something different."

What qualifies us to make judgments about what God is up to in this scenario? Nothing. Curses were designed to punish disobedience. Period. "What about Job?" Remember that good ol' Job had to repent in the end!! It turned out that Job was running his religious mouth when he should have just been repenting.

Father, forgive me for all the pride that has manifested in my life, particularly in my hardest times. Forgive me for ever even thinking I was experiencing less than blessing unjustly. Forgive me for declaring myself innocent in the absence of blessings that says otherwise.