Prayers That Activate Blessings

Chapter 2 The Blessing Of Obedience

WE KNOW FROM the story of the Fall in the Garden of Eden that our intimacy with God rests on our obedience to Him. And if we are not close to God through obedience, we are separated from Him through our disobedience and therefore forfeit receiving His blessing. Adam and Eve were given a simple charge, and that was to stay away from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Any other bountiful blessing and experience in the garden was theirs: And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, "Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die." —Genesis 2:16-17 But they did not heed the voice of the Lord and, as we all know, lost their place of honor, blessing, and protection from the consequences of sin. It is even clearer that the blessings of God depend on our obedience when we go back and review the Book of Deuteronomy, where God spelled out His covenant plan to the children of Israel. It almost seems as though He repeated Himself too much, but we know from the Old Testament account and our own life experience that even with His faithfulness in reminding us of the blessing of obedience, man still goes his own way and moves himself