Deuteronomy 28:7-14

7 “The Lord will cause your enemies who rise against you to be defeated before you. They shall come out against you one way and flee before you seven ways. 8 The Lord will command the blessing on you in your barns and in all that you undertake. And he will bless you in the land that the Lord your God is giving you. 9 The Lord will establish you as a people holy to himself, as he has sworn to you, if you keep the commandments of the Lord your God and walk in his ways. 10 And all the peoples of the earth shall see that you are called by the name of the Lord, and they shall be afraid of you. 11 And the Lord will make you abound in prosperity, in the fruit of your womb and in the fruit of your livestock and in the fruit of your ground, within the land that the Lord swore to your fathers to give you. 12 The Lord will open to you his good treasury, the heavens, to give the rain to your land in its season and to bless all the work of your hands. And you shall lend to many nations, but you shall not borrow. 13 And the Lord will make you the head and not the tail, and you shall only go up and not down, if you obey the commandments of the Lord your God, which I command you today, being careful to do them, 14 and if you do not turn aside from any of the words that I command you today, to the right hand or to the left, to go after other gods to serve them.

One of the coolest moments in cinematic history is found in the final battle scene in The Avengers. These so-called Avengers of earth have spent the entire movie arguing and fighting amongst each other in a profound power struggle. Each of them has their own agenda for saving the world and their own stubborn ideas on how to do it; none of them care to listen to their leader, Director Fury, who organized the team to begin with. Until we get to that final fight scene, when the Avengers lay aside their selfishness, their differences, and join together in a circle surrounded by the enemy and prepared to fight to their potential deaths. The camera pans around them, the soundtrack reaches a crescendo, Hulk bellows out a mighty roar, and the enemy flees––by choice or by force––from Earth’s mightiest heroes as they finally fulfill their purpose.

Our Leader, our Lord, wants to bless you. He wants to send your enemies packing, give you prosperity, and bless you in ways you could have never imagined. But there is no shot that happens if we follow after other gods; idols that draw our full attention like social media, technology, a boyfriend, a sport. None of those things are necessarily bad; but if they take the place of our Lord, if they speak more loudly into our lives than our Leader, then they have become like gods to us. We must seek to obey God’s commands, to follow His ways, so the enemies––selfishness, greed, pride, distraction, sin––may flee from us because we are joined together with Christ, our ultimate Avenger.

Follow the SHINE Time devotional tool to dive deeper into today’s scripture!

Seek the Lord in prayer.

Highlight a characteristic of God.

Identify a truth about yourself or people.

Notice what the Holy Spirit is communicating to you.

Engage in the next action step. Think of a way to respond in obedience to what God has revealed to you today.