For your own Good

I’ve heard that phrase a few times over the years. Usually from one of my parents. They weren’t wrong.

Deuteronomy 10:13 NLT

“And you must always obey the LORD’s commands and decrees that I am giving you today for your own good.”

Reflection

Moses shares these words with the people who had just left Egypt and were beginning a completely different life. A life God was providing for them.

Just think about that for a moment.

God chooses Moses to lead a very large group of people out of slavery and into a new land. Freed from Pharaoh and from the way they had been living for generations. They may not have liked that old life very much. Or maybe parts of it had simply become normal to them. Either way, it was familiar. Now suddenly everything was changing.

That kind of change is not always comfortable.

Moses was charged with helping provide structure to these people who had lived one way for so long. They were entering a new season and now needed understanding, direction, and honestly probably reassurance too. I suspect many of them were uncertain, uncomfortable, and maybe even wondering if this new life was really going to be better.

So now comes the part where Moses says here is what God is instructing you to do. Here is how you should live. But then comes the important part. Why?

For your own good.

That is where their story and ours come together.

Both of us know about God. Both of us have access to His instruction. We have scripture. We have the example of Jesus. We have wisdom shared through others and through life itself. God, the creator of all things, has shared how to live and how to be. Why? For our own good.

Not because He wants to crush us with rules. Not because He enjoys control. But because He actually knows better than we do.

Let’s face it. The Bible is full of examples that help us understand this. There are examples of faithfulness and examples of disaster. Examples of obedience and examples of people deciding they knew better. Honestly we can see the same thing looking around us every day.

But eventually we have to stop looking at everyone else and look at the person in the mirror.

Are you and I following what God has provided for us?

And when life changes and we enter a new season do we bring God into it? Or do we simply lean on ourselves and our own understanding?

After all, maybe God had a hand in getting us to that new place in the first place. Maybe that difficult road you just crossed was not random at all.

Back to those freed people for a moment.

So here you are older now. You just crossed through something difficult. Maybe even something miraculous had to happen to get you where you are. Yet somehow you still do not feel the way you expected you would feel. In fact maybe you feel more uncertain than before. More aware of your age. More aware there is less road ahead than behind.

Or maybe you are younger. You escaped something you knew was unhealthy or broken. You were desperate for different. But now that different has arrived it still is not exactly what you thought it would be.

Different does not always immediately feel good.

So what do we do with all that?

Well God put it out there through Moses. Jesus reinforced it too. It really is not hidden from us. Follow God. Listen to Him. Study the examples He gave us. Live the way He instructs us to live.

Why?

Because He knows more than we do. Because He sees more than we do. Because His direction is ultimately for our own good.

Let’s end with this.

Who knows better? You? God?

Nuff said.

Prayer

Heavenly Father, you truly do know what is best for us. You have given us the example of Jesus, the words of Moses, the Prophets, and so many examples throughout scripture of what faithful living looks like. Help us understand that sometimes we have to surrender part of ourselves to embrace more of you. Help strip away the things that keep pulling us away from your direction and your wisdom. Give us the humility to trust that your ways are better than ours even when we do not fully understand them yet. Help us get there and stay there. I pray this in the name of Jesus my Savior and Lord. Amen.