All Christians get excited about talking about the blessing, prosperity and goodness of God, but not everyone finds it in them to talk about the curses. One thing is for sure: God never withheld from talking about curses.

It's important for all believers to have a strong and healthy view of curses because it is in understanding the nature and being of curses that we see the magnitude of our sin and the power that is behind the finished work of the cross. When Jesus took to the cross the sin of mankind, He took every curse upon Himself as well.

What are curses and why is it important to understand why we are to lay up on the cross the curses upon our lives?

A curse is an outcome of our disobedience

Curses come when we disobey God. Some think that curses are made by God as a way to vindictively repay us for our evil. Whether that is true or not, it is not God's fault that we are cursed. It is our fault and our crime. The totality of curses bring about sickness, disease, infirmity, bondage and even death itself.

All of these come solely because we have failed to meet the standard that God originally meant for us to meet. Proverbs 3:33 says, "The Lord's curse is on the house of the wicked, but he blesses the dwelling of the righteous."

A curse is the absence of God's goodness

The wrath of God is mentioned many times in the Bible, but a curse is not really much the presence of a hateful anger, but the absence of an abundance of God's goodness. As we bring in sin into our hearts, God leaves because He cannot co-exist with sin. As a result, His goodness and blessings leave our presence and our lives as well.

Deuteronomy 30:19 tells us, "I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse. Therefore choose life, that you and your offspring may live."

A curse is not beyond the power of God's love and grace

The ultimatum of curses today is that they are now overcome by the power of Jesus's death and resurrection. While many people still live under a curse, it is because they are unaware or resistant to the redemptive power that comes through inviting Jesus to break the chains of curses in their lives.

Galatians 3:13 gives us the great news that "Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us—for it is written, 'Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree.'"