So That You’ll Have A Good Life

Deuteronomy 6:3 – Hear, Israel, and be careful to obey SO THAT IT MAY GO WELL WITH YOU and that you may increase greatly in a land flowing with milk and honey, just as the LORD, the God of your ancestors, promised you.

6:3  Listen obediently, Israel. Do what you’re told SO THAT YOU’LL HAVE A GOOD LIFE, a life of abundance and bounty, just as God promised, in a land abounding in milk and honey. (Message Bible)

Who doesn’t want a good life? Don’t we do everything to attain a good life? Aren’t our efforts daily geared towards dreaming of a good life or working towards it?

A good life means different things to different people. A good life couldn’t access to food for one and luxurious living for another. A good life could be peace for one and for another end of loneliness.

What one calls a good life today may change tomorrow as circumstances change. A good life for a child will change when they become teenagers. At a younger age a good life is toys and fun at home. At teenage a good life is peer approval and fun away from home.

Whatever a good life is to us, lacking nothing we need and want forms the basics of a good life. If I don’t lack what I want then I am living a good life. Are you living a good life?

Psalms 23:1 – The LORD is my shepherd, I lack nothing.

David tells us that he lacks nothing because God is his Shepherd. That is a good life. To lack nothing is good. The problem is, we also want to lack nothing like David, but we are not willing and ready to have God as our shepherd.

We want the result but we are uncomfortable with the process. I am uncomfortable with God as my shepherd, but I seriously want to lack nothing. It is impossible. You will only lack nothing if God is your shepherd, no other way!

What does it mean for God to be your shepherd? It means He makes all decisions for your life. You do His will not yours.

Psalms 23:2-3 – He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside quiet waters, (3) he refreshes my soul. He guides me along the right paths for his name’s sake.

When God is your shepherd He makes all decisions. He makes you lie down even if you didn’t want. He leads you where He wants. Your attitude towards Him is good, therefore you find Him refreshing. He guides you for His own name’s sake. His will and interest comes first. That is what it means for God to be your shepherd. Those are circumstances under which you will lack nothing and have a good life.

You can easily say that, it’s easy. It’s easy because He makes you lie down in green pastures. Which sheep doesn’t want that? It’s easy because He leads me beside nice soothing quiet waters. However, that is not the only place the shepherd can take you.

Psalms 23:4 – Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me.

Sometimes when God is your shepherd, you will find yourself in very dangerous places. Valley of the shadow of death. You stick by God even in extreme danger. You do not abandon God when things are bad. That is when you say God is my shepherd I will lack nothing. Lacking nothing is the essence of a good life. For you to have a good life, God must be your shepherd!

Our reading today from Deuteronomy chapter six tells us that it is only in obeying God that a good life is possible. Obeying God leads to a good life. Obeying God as a sheep obeys the shepherd.

Moses tells Israel that if they obey God, they will have a good life. They will have plenty of milk and honey. They will lack nothing. That is a good life!

You can’t have a good life without God. Fix your relationship with God and you will have a good life. Fix your church attendance. Fix your Bible study habits. Fix your prayer life. Adjust your life to what the Bible teaches. Do God’s will as a sheep obeys the shepherd. Let God be your shepherd. Fully obey Him and you will lack nothing. You will have a good life.

Matthew 6:33 – But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.

First is the kingdom of God, the spiritual things. Let God through the Holy Spirit empower you to do His will. On our own we cannot let God be our shepherd, we will keep rebelling.

In order to have a good life obey God like sheep obey the shepherd. Obey God in school. Obey God at work. Obey God when dating. Obey God in marriage. Obey God in parenting. Obey God in your relationship with neighbors, relatives and friends. Obey God in your pleasures. Obey God in your dressing, eating, drinking, etc. Obey God in your choice of entertainment. Obey God when angry and offended. Obey God under all circumstances! Obeying God like a sheep obeys the shepherd is the process towards a good life where you lack nothing!

We can’t have a good life without the process. May God grant us the grace to let Him lead us, to let Him be our shepherd, to enable us to fully obey Him, so that we will lack nothing. In lacking nothing may we have the desired good life, in Jesus’s name, Amen!

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