Avoiding a curse

DEVOTION

PROVERBS

NO CURSE

Prov 26:2

2 Like a fluttering sparrow or a darting swallow, an undeserved curse does not come to rest.

NIV

This is actually talking about a blessing from God. If we consider how a sparrow flutters around in the air, or how the swallow darts to and fro and seems to never settle down to perch, so it is with this undeserved curse. It never comes to rest upon us. Because we are children of God we do not deserve any curse. God certainly proclaims that anyone who trusts in himself, or the flesh is cursed.

Jer 17:5-6

"Cursed is the one who trusts in man, who depends on flesh for his strength and whose heart turns away from the LORD. 6 He will be like a bush in the wastelands; he will not see prosperity when it comes. He will dwell in the parched places of the desert, in a salt land where no one lives.

NIV

Self-reliance brings a curse down upon us. Certainly we know we cannot get to heaven without relying on the work of Christ. But there may be some people who think just being a good person gets them to heaven in the end. We hear that all too often in our conversations with those who are not born again, who have not accepted Jesus as their Lord and Savior, repenting of their sin. They may in fact be really good people, even doing some good works for mankind, but if they have not accepted Jesus into their heart, it is not going to go well with them in the end. But that is a form of self-reliance, trusting in man, depending on the flesh for his strength. This does not only apply to salvation, but to our daily life as well. If we rely upon ourselves for our daily bread instead of asking God to give us this day our daily bread, then we may well be bringing a curse down upon us, we may well deserve it. The idea of being born again, is that the old has passed away and all things have been made new.

2 Cor 5:17-18

17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!

NIV

All the way we used to look at living is in the past, all the trusting in self has passed away and now we trust in God. The only way not to deserve the curse is to trust in him for everything, salvation and our daily bread. Even in our imperfection we still do not deserve the curse because we have placed our trust in the work of Christ on the cross, taking all our sin, past, present and future onto himself, being the perfect and ultimate sacrifice offered for all sin. So any curse will simply dart around in the air never to settle on us, because we are blessed.

Jer 17:7-8

7 "But blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD, whose confidence is in him. 8 He will be like a tree planted by the water that sends out its roots by the stream. It does not fear when heat comes; its leaves are always green. It has no worries in a year of drought and never fails to bear fruit."

NIV

There is no curse here, only blessings from God for those whose trust is in the Lord.