Leviticus 25:18 “‘Follow my decrees and be careful to obey my laws, and you will live safely in the land. 19 Then the land will yield its fruit, and you will eat your fill and live there in safety. 20 You may ask, “What will we eat in the seventh year if we do not plant or harvest our crops?” 21 I will send you such a blessing in the sixth year that the land will yield enough for three years. 22 While you plant during the eighth year, you will eat from the old crop and will continue to eat from it until the harvest of the ninth year comes in.

The most secure place to live is in the middle of God’s will. Sometimes you may question how you can know if you are in the middle of His will. Let me answer that question with another question. Are you obeying God’s commands and following His direction for your life? If so, then it is impossible to miss the life He has for you. Many people miss the will of God, not because it is hidden, but because it seems hard. This command must have been frustrating to the people of God because it went against what they knew worked well. The will of God will require trust and faith in His plan and also in His provision. If you trust His plan, you will discover His provision. Today I want to talk about how you can recognize God’s invitation to His perfect plan.

1.Realize that obedience to God’s plan will always seem risky. God told the people to take the seventh year off from planting. This was a very risky proposition. What if the sixth year was not great or what if the eighth year was terrible? The whole tribe could starve to death. The people probably thought, “If planting works well the first six years, why should we mess up a good thing by taking a year off?” Sometimes the greatest enemy to you enjoying the best God has for you is your willingness to risk what has been good enough.

2.Realize that obedience to God’s plan will produce more than your plan could ever produce. God tells the people that if they will trust Him, He will make their sixth year produce three times the amount of harvest. God says trust me. You must know that when God gives you a command, He is actually giving you an invitation to experience a level of His provision you could never produce on your own. The very action that God tells you to take that looks like it may destroy you may be the action He uses to bless you.

3.Realize that obedience to God’s plan is a witness to others. This Sabbath year blessing that God was going to pour out on His people was not only to give the land a rest but to also give the people of the land a witness to God’s great provision. Every nation would hear of the provision of God to Israel and know that He had blessed them. When you obey God, others will recognize that your mode of operation has changed. People will take note that when God blesses you it was the work of God and not just your own efforts that produced your success.

Today’s Challenge: Realize that God invites you to experience His blessings and provision one act of obedience at a time. God is not trying to keep things from you but He will work in your life to get the best blessings to you. That may require some actions that seem risky, different, and even embarrassing. Pray today that God will give you the resolve to trust Him and thereby partake of the provision of His plan.