Pray Thru the Bible

God Speaks

“You must love the Lord your God and always obey his requirements, decrees, regulations, and commands. ² Keep in mind that I am not talking now to your children, who have never experienced the discipline of the Lord your God or seen his greatness and his strong hand and powerful arm. ³ They didn’t see the miraculous signs and wonders he performed in Egypt against Pharaoh and all his land. ⁴ They didn’t see what the Lord did to the armies of Egypt and to their horses and chariots—how he drowned them in the Red Sea as they were chasing you. He destroyed them, and they have not recovered to this very day!

⁵ “Your children didn’t see how the Lord cared for you in the wilderness until you arrived here. ⁶ They didn’t see what he did to Dathan and Abiram (the sons of Eliab, a descendant of Reuben) when the earth opened its mouth in the Israelite camp and swallowed them, along with their households and tents and every living thing that belonged to them. ⁷ But you have seen the Lord perform all these mighty deeds with your own eyes!

⁸ “Therefore, be careful to obey every command I am giving you today, so you may have strength to go in and take over the land you are about to enter. ⁹ If you obey, you will enjoy a long life in the land the Lord swore to give to your ancestors and to you, their descendants—a land flowing with milk and honey! ¹⁰ For the land you are about to enter and take over is not like the land of Egypt from which you came, where you planted your seed and made irrigation ditches with your foot as in a vegetable garden. ¹¹ Rather, the land you will soon take over is a land of hills and valleys with plenty of rain— ¹² a land that the Lord your God cares for. He watches over it through each season of the year!

¹³ “If you carefully obey the commands I am giving you today, and if you love the Lord your God and serve him with all your heart and soul, ¹⁴ then he will send the rains in their proper seasons—the early and late rains—so you can bring in your harvests of grain, new wine, and olive oil. ¹⁵ He will give you lush pastureland for your livestock, and you yourselves will have all you want to eat.

¹⁶ “But be careful. Don’t let your heart be deceived so that you turn away from the Lord and serve and worship other gods. ¹⁷ If you do, the Lord’s anger will burn against you. He will shut up the sky and hold back the rain, and the ground will fail to produce its harvests. Then you will quickly die in that good land the Lord is giving you.

¹⁸ “So commit yourselves wholeheartedly to these words of mine. Tie them to your hands and wear them on your forehead as reminders. ¹⁹ Teach them to your children. Talk about them when you are at home and when you are on the road, when you are going to bed and when you are getting up. ²⁰ Write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates, ²¹ so that as long as the sky remains above the earth, you and your children may flourish in the land the Lord swore to give your ancestors.

²² “Be careful to obey all these commands I am giving you. Show love to the Lord your God by walking in his ways and holding tightly to him. ²³ Then the Lord will drive out all the nations ahead of you, though they are much greater and stronger than you, and you will take over their land. ²⁴ Wherever you set foot, that land will be yours. Your frontiers will stretch from the wilderness in the south to Lebanon in the north, and from the Euphrates River in the east to the Mediterranean Sea in the west. ²⁵ No one will be able to stand against you, for the Lord your God will cause the people to fear and dread you, as he promised, wherever you go in the whole land.

²⁶ “Look, today I am giving you the choice between a blessing and a curse! ²⁷ You will be blessed if you obey the commands of the Lord your God that I am giving you today. ²⁸ But you will be cursed if you reject the commands of the Lord your God and turn away from him and worship gods you have not known before.

²⁹ “When the Lord your God brings you into the land and helps you take possession of it, you must pronounce the blessing at Mount Gerizim and the curse at Mount Ebal. ³⁰ (These two mountains are west of the Jordan River in the land of the Canaanites who live in the Jordan Valley, near the town of Gilgal, not far from the oaks of Moreh.) ³¹ For you are about to cross the Jordan River to take over the land the Lord your God is giving you. When you take that land and are living in it, ³² you must be careful to obey all the decrees and regulations I am giving you today.

Source: New Living Translation: BibleGateway.com

We Respond

Reflection: Consider the following questions regarding Deuteronomy 11:

1. What does this chapter tell me about God?

2. What does this chapter tell me about the human beings He created?

Here is one possible answer to each of these questions. Ask the Holy Spirit if there are any others for you personally to ponder.  

1. God has laid out the laws and decrees that He expects people to follow so that they can receive the blessings He has prepared for them.

2. People have to choose between obedience to the LORD God which leads to blessings or disobedience to Him which leads to curses.

Prayer:

3. How might I pray regarding Deuteronomy 11?  

Dear LORD God Almighty, I acknowledge that, as my Creator, You have every right to set the ground rules of our relationship. You have laid out in the scriptures what You expect of me. Even though I know what You want, I can’t do it. Jesus, You knew that. That is why You came as a baby. You experienced all that it means to be a human being, yet You never sinned. Because of Your life of complete and perfect obedience, Your substitutionary death on the cross, and Your sending the Holy Spirit to live in me, I am now able to fear, love, obey, and serve You as I ought. The numerous ways that You blessed, protected, and provided for the Israelites reminds me of the many ways You have blessed, protected, and provided for me over my lifetime. Thank You, and don’t let me forget to be grateful when things are going well and to continue to trust and obey You when they aren’t. I commit myself whole-heartedly to Your Word. I determine (with help of the Holy Spirit) to hear, read, study, memorize, meditate on, speak about, and live out the truths of the Bible constantly and consistently. If I remain in a dependent relationship with You, You promise to bless me as You did the Israelites, driving out my enemies. I pledge to demonstrate my love for You, LORD God, by walking in Your ways and holding tightly to You. Help me also to announce Your blessings and curses in public as well as private. May multitudes see Your work in believers’ lives (or their own) and come to trust and obey You for Your glory, LORD. AMEN

Action: (Ask God, the Holy Spirit, if He wants you to work on one of the suggestions below or something else more personal that He points out.)

4. What action does the LORD want me to take in response to Deuteronomy 11?

• I will spread at least 15 minutes daily building my relationship with God through reading the Bible and interactive prayer.
• I will ask another believer about their relationship with God and encourage them to grow in it.
• I will thank God for His blessings in my life and seek to learn from and correct the behaviors that brought curses. 
• I will meet regularly with two or three other people to hold each other accountable to trust and obey the LORD God and walk in His ways.

Share: I plan to share what I’ve learned with __________.