Forfeiture of Blessing

Forfeiture of Blessing

We may never know some of the rich blessings God has for us.

The LORD said, “I have pardoned, according to your word. But truly, as I live, and as all the earth shall be filled with the glory of the LORD, none of the men who have seen my glory and my signs that I did in Egypt and in the wilderness, and yet have put me to the test these ten times and have not obeyed my voice, shall see the land that I swore to give to their fathers.” Numbers 14:20-23

The generation that balked at the report of the spies did not lose their salvation, but they did forfeit the blessings of God. Moses forfeited the blessings of God when he obstructed the people’s vision of the power of God’s Word. God is warning His people, here in His Law, that the many abundant blessings and precious and very great promises He has in store for us can be forfeited by unbelief and disobedience.

This is as true for the followers of Christ as it was for the ancient Israelites. If we will not believe the Lord and will not walk in His ways, how can we expect to know the full and abundant life He has for us in Jesus? We forfeit the blessings He continually holds out to us because of our little faith.

The Lord uses passive disciplines to keep us in the way of His covenant, to keep us on track to know and enjoy Him and His promises. We need to understand how these passive disciplines work, so that we recognize and respond to them as we should. Thus we can know the benefit God intends through them.

For more insight to the nature of God’s Covenant, order a copy of T. M.’s book, I Will Be Your God, from our online store. Visit our website, www.ailbe.org, and sign up to receive our thrice-weekly devotional, Crosfigell, featuring writers from the period of the Celtic Revival and T. M.’s reflections on Scripture and the Celtic Christian tradition.

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In the Gates is a devotional series on the Law of God by Rev. T. M. Moore, editor of the Worldview Church. He serves as dean of the Centurions Program of the Wilberforce Forum and principal of The Fellowship of Ailbe, a spiritual fellowship in the Celtic Christian tradition. He is the author or editor of twenty books, and has contributed chapters to four others. His essays, reviews, articles, papers, and poetry have appeared in dozens of national and international journals, and on a wide range of websites. His most recent books are The Ailbe Psalter and The Ground for Christian Ethics (Waxed Tablet).

Scripture quotations in this article are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version, (c) copyright 2001, 2007 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.