Turning the curse into a blessing

Deuteronomy 23:5

Nevertheless the LORD thy God would not hearken unto Balaam; but the LORD thy God turned the curse into a blessing unto thee, because the LORD thy God loved thee.

In ancient Israel, Balak king of Moab attempted to hire Balaam to curse Israel, because he knew he was a prophet of God and wanted to have an advantage in battle. But, notwithstanding his own shortcomings, Balaam was able to hear from God and for a while listened to the Lord and refused to curse God’s people. Instead, Balaam took up his parable and begin to bless God’s people in the most eloquent terms. What the enemy meant for evil, the Lord turned around for the good of His people. What the devil desired for destruction, God designed for good.

Is it not the same in the life of the believer in Christ? Romans 8:28 assures us that all things work together for good to them that love God, and does this not include those things that appear to be curses? The jabs and insults of the enemy himself, the assault of life’s circumstances, and even the malice or slander of others? Does this not include the daily difficulty that you face that seems to be increasing and never ending? There is no good in this! you may say. But the very things that seem to be imprecatory can be the means of God’s greatest bestowment of blessing. Through the insults, difficulties, misunderstandings, and interminable trials, God may be working all for our glorious good and His eternal glory! What lessons we are learning! How we are learning to be like Christ! (See Romans 8:29) How we are becoming tender to God, and towards others! How we are beginning to survey His wondrous cross more! How we are seeing His inseparable love more! (See Romans 8:35-39) How we are changing “into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord”!

Beloved, let us not look on the happenings or predicaments of life as curses, but as those through which God desires to bestow His greatest blessings upon us. Look for His blessing! Ask for it! Believe it! No doubt, the Lord will turn the curse into a blessing, because the Lord Thy God loveth thee!

“O gentle Father, we thank Thee that Thou canst turn the worst things into the best things. O help us to believe Thee and trust Thee for this, because Thou didst turn our sins into righteousness through the blood of Thy precious Son. Through Him, we now believe that Thou wilt turn our curses into blessings for our good and for Thy glory. According to Thy Word we trust Thee fully for this, surrendering all of our lives to Thee. O Father, bless us we pray! For Christ’s sake and in His name we pray these things, Amen.”