Blessings For God’s Faithful Servants
Scripture: “May God be gracious to us and bless us and make his face shine on us- so that your ways may be known on earth, your salvation among all nations.” – Psalm 67:1-2
Observation/Application:
The more that I read scripture, the more that I am convinced that God wants to bless us. But not everyone gets to receive and enjoy God’s blessing. Why is that?
The reason is darkness. We are surrounded by it. Cravings of the flesh, selfishness, pride, anger, greed. Without God, it’s not hard to get wrapped up in ourselves. It’s easy to travel the way of the world, instead of the Way of the Word. In the short term, the world view appears to satisfy the flesh, what we can see with our eyes, from the middle of the forest.
But if we rise above the trees, and can look at things from the Word view, above the noise and what our simple minds can conceive, we put on the Word view and see things from God’s perspective. We get out of the shadows of the forest and rise into the light. “God is light; in him there is no darkness at all.” – (1 John 5). And in this light, all things are possible. God created the world and everything in it. Do we think that anything is too difficult for our God? We just need to put on God’s perspective. How do we do that?
In short, we need to go with God. When there are two roads, take the one that God takes. Yesterday we read that Jesus tells Peter to, “Follow me.” – (John 21:19). All we need to do is stay with God, and he will be with us. It is not God that leaves us, it is us who leave God! He walks in light and life and love, and we are the ones who walk off into the darkness. Then we get mad at God because He is not with us, when we are the ones who left him! God help our silliness! If there is one thing that the Bible makes very clear, it is that God is with us! Doing a quick search this morning, here are 21 verses where God declares that, “I am with you.”
- Genesis 26:24
- Genesis 28:15
- Joshua 3:7
- 1 Samuel 14:7
- 2 Kings 10:15
- Isaiah 41:10
- Isaiah 43:5
- Jeremiah 1:8
- Jeremiah 1:19
- Jeremiah 15:20
- Jeremiah 30:11
- Jeremiah 42:11
- Jeremiah 46:28
- Haggai 1:13
- Haggai 2:4
- Matthew 28:20
- John 7:33
- Acts 18:10
- 1 Corinthians 5:3
- 1 Corinthians 5:4
- Galatians 4:18
God is with us and will never forsake us – (Hebrews 13:5). And He is the light. If we want to walk in the light, in all of His goodness, in all of His blessing, then we simply need to go with God. God will bless those who walk with Him. It may not be immediate, it may not be right when we want it, but God always keeps his promises. And if we want to be blessed then we have to be with Him. How can we expect God to bless us when we have left Him, taken another road, and are in another town?
It’s like when my boys who decided not to spend the day with dad miss out on the frozen custard. I always ask who wants to go with dad, and the ones who come with me are the ones who are going to get blessed. True I might bring ice cream home for them sometimes, especially if I know their hearts are good and there was some other reason that they can’t be with me. But if they punk me, or decide they have better things to do, I assure you that they are not getting the frozen custard. Those blessings are saved for the boys who want to be with dad. I can more easily bless them when they are with me. I don’t always get frozen custard, but when I do they get the blessing.
God can bless us at all times and in all ways. But doesn’t it make sense that when we are with Him that we are more likely to receive His blessings? God blesses those abundantly who He can trust to respond appropriately. He blesses those who He can trust to do His Will, ” so that your ways may be known on earth, your salvation among all nations.” – (Psalm 67:2). That’s the second half of the equation. Receiving the blessing is part one. What we do with it is part two. When we are blessed, we are to make God’s Ways known. We are to share in God’s blessing and bring others to know Him, just as God was made known to us and blessed us.
There tends to be a lot of debate on God’s blessings, prosperity, and how we are to live our lives as Christians. But in my mind, this verse makes it pretty clear. How can the God who loves us so much that He gave us His only Son to die for us, not want to bless us so that we might be able to bring others to Christ? That doesn’t make much sense. God wants to bless us, I have no doubt. He wants us to walk in light, and not in darkness. He wants us to walk with Him, beside Him, in power and authority, boldness and strength, love and forgiveness, joy and peace.
“For He is with us and will never forsake us. He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? – (Romans 8:32).
Prayer:
Dear heavenly Father, thank you for your Word this morning. For today is the day that You have made, let us rejoice and be glad in it. We seek you first Lord, and ask for your help. Help us to stay close to you all throughout the day. Help us to not turn away from you Lord, and to not turn aside to the right or to the left. Help us to stay in the light, and not veer off into the darkness where we trip and fall. Guide our every step, our every thought, our every Word. Keep us in your love and light. Forgive my sins and temptations. Purify my heart. We give you all the honor and glory, in Jesus mighty name, now and forever. Amen.
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