Nae's Notes

My pastor recently challenged us to read Deuteronomy 28:1-14 every day for the month of January because it contained promises of blessings. The end of verse #1 contains the first promise that God will set us above the nations.  The beginning of the verse contains different words of instruction. I decided to read the verse in different translations to see if any different words were used. The words “the Lord will” didn’t change in each translation. However, a variety of words were used for the first part of the verse which concerned instructions for us. I found words like “listen obediently” and “heartily obey” (Message version), “diligently listen and obey” and “careful to do all” (Amplified version), and “fully obey” and “carefully keep” (New Living Translation). These instructions did not use the words “passively”, “loosely”, or “quietly”. It seems that our different levels of obedience are accounted for in the different versions. Different words appeal to different people. It appears that many bases were covered when the verse was written. It’s like the condition and understanding of today’s society were interpreted and anticipated.

We are so good today at critiquing people’s words into, “What did they really mean?” Things are so easlily misinterpreted or misunderstood. The wording of this verse in different versions clearly paints a picture of our role in God’s plan for our lives. We are to carefully, diligently, heartily, and fully listen to and obey God’s words. There is no open door to halfway with these words. When we do our part…the Lord will! That’s good news! He will…when we will! He’s not going to force us to obey Him. We have to do the first part of the verse- make the first step. We can survive each day by only obeying Him part of the time. However, we will thrive when we carefully, diligently, heartily, and fully obey His words because then He will!

Where to begin? This is something I’ve wanted to do for awhile but been hesitant to start. Questions like, “Can I keep up with a blog?’,  and “Will anyone care what I have to say?” are at the top of the reasons why this has taken so long. A theme in my journal writing emerged last summer, which elevated my desire to do this. I marvel at how many life lessons I’ve missed over the years by just being busy and content to survive. I wanted to stop surviving each day and start thriving through life. “Survive vs. thrive” became the theme in my journal. It’s changed the way I see things and challenged me to think about each day differently. My hope is that this will help you thrive too!