March 4 – A Matter of Peace

“The Lord will give strength to His people; The Lord will bless His people with peace.”  -Psalm 29:11  (NASB)

Isn’t it interesting, how many times the word ‘peace?’ is found in God’s word?  Give or take it's 400 times. The verse and version we selected for today tells us that “The Lord will give…” and “The Lord will bless…” Another version might say “May the Lord…”  Both ways are affirmative promises. Comfort also comes because we receive two things we really need; strength and peace.  When we are in need of strength, we are likely also in need of peace in our lives. By trusting God’s word and the promises we find here, we receive not only strength and peace, we also are comforted because we know and trust that God always fulfills the promises He makes to us.  We are not left to fend off the enemy on our own – because that is a losing cause.  God gives us the strength and the victory in our fight against unrighteousness.  And with the victory comes the peace.  Actually, we have peace even before the battle because God promised it to be so.  Peace is not a shy matter in God’s Word. Today, let’s affirm the strength and peace we have from God.    

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June 17 – From Deep Within

“Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless his holy name!  Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits,”  Psalm 103:1-2 (ESV)

We are reminded by today's verses that we are called to express our praise to God.  We have received so many promises and benefits from our Lord we should be offering up blessings to Him because of who He is and what He has given to us.  Not only through the words which we use but from every part  of our being.  Our praise of God comes from all that is within us.  Recognizing that all that we are is due to all that He has given and promised us.  Down to the very center of our souls, we praise God and bless His holy name.  When we sing praises we should be doing more than simply singing the familiar words but we should be offering them to God from a heart that truly believes the words and what they say.  Today, catch a familiar song and sing it silently or out loud from deep within your being.  Bless the Lord with our souls!   

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August 9 – Out of the Heart

“I will bless the Lord at all times; His praise shall continually be in my mouth.”  Psalm 34:1 (NASB)

When we notice that this verse is part of a song written by David, it seems natural that he would begin his song with words like this.  David wrote so many of the Psalms we have in the Bible and many of them are songs of praise to God.  If David could say that he wanted to always be praising God we should ask if that is how we feel about God as well?  Can we say that His praise will always be in our mouth?  In other passages of the Bible we are reminded that our lips do not work on their own.  Our mouths speak out what is in our hearts.  So if we want our mouth and lips to speak out the praises of our Lord today, we'll need to spend time thinking in our heart about the goodness and the love of our God and about His greatness.  He has promised us so very much that we can count on, praising Him and His name is a natural response.  Today, let's think about His promises and fill our hearts with them so that our mouth will continually praise our Lord God.

Note: If you have found hope and encouragement in these daily blogs, please share them with your friends.  

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June 17 – Praise from Within

“Praise the Lord, my soul; all my inmost being, praise his holy name. Praise the Lord, my soul, and forget not all his benefits—” Psalm 103:1-2 (NIV)

This is from a song written by David. We know that many of the psalms are songs of praise. We are used to singing hymns of praise to God when we assemble as a church. We also think of praising the Lord by words that we speak in the presence of other people. All of these things are good and we should do more of this kind of praising God. But, did you notice that our verse speaks about praise that is not by words that are spoken?  It's about praise that goes on inside a person. God is aware when a person praises Him silently, in their mind or in their heart. Praise is not always expressed in words and we can praise God with our emotions in our inmost being. Throughout the day, we can be sending up praise to God for His goodness to us, for His Gift and for His many promises that He has made to us.  Today, let's praise God from our soul and all that is within us by remembering His benefits.  

March 19 – Strength and Peace

“The Lord will give strength to His people; The Lord will bless His people with peace.” Psalm 29:11 (NASB)

There are wonderful advantages connected with being a follower of the Lord Jesus. God has given many promises about his care for His people and many of them are in the book of Psalms in our Bible. You can notice that in today's short verse there are two promises. They are both for God's people. If you are a follower of the Lord Jesus today these promises are given to you. The first is a promise of strength. Do you feel you need strength of body or strength of spirit  to do something today? Our lives today can present some challenges that we need strength to face.  If so, just look to God and trust Him to enable you to do it. Or, maybe your heart is disturbed about something and you are stressed and anxious about circumstances in your life. Remember that God has promised to bless His people with peace. If you trust Him He'll flood your soul with His peace whenever you need it. Trust God to keep his word, Jesus went to the cross to die so that we can all have eternal peace with God. 

February 25 – Keeps. Gracious. Sees. Peace.

“The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make his face shine on you and be gracious to you; the Lord turn his face toward you and give you peace.”  Numbers 6:24-26 (NIV)

The words of this prayer in the book of Numbers are words of blessing prescribed by God Himself. It was a blessing to be pronounced by the priests in the hearing of the people. The blessing is also for us today. Each one who belongs to God by faith can apply the words to themselves. They are not words of wishful thinking and they are not even a prayer. They did not originate in the minds of either Moses or Aaron the High Priest, they were dictated to Moses by God. This means that this is what God wants to do for His people. He wants to bless us. He wants to make His face shine upon us. And He wants to give us peace. These words make up a promise of God to bless us in these ways – He will keep us, be gracious to us, look at and see us and bring peace. What a promise to carry with us today and into the future. God loves you so very much.

March 12

“The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make his face shine on you and be gracious to you; the Lord turn his face toward you and give you peace.” Numbers 6:24-26 (NIV)

These are familiar words – the words of blessing that Moses instructed the priests to use for the people of Israel. I’m thinking today of how the face of the Lord affects His children. We read of the Lord’s face shining upon us and of the Lord turning His face toward us. What was the final result? Peace! Isn’t that the way it is? If we know that the Lord is looking at us it makes a big difference. And if we sense that His face is shining upon us it means that He loves us. He’s looking at us with love. Doesn’t that bring peace to our hearts?

March 8

“The Lord remembers us and will bless us…He will bless those who fear the Lord—small and great alike.”  Psalm 115:12a-13 (NIV)

Are you looking for a blessing from the Lord today? This is a promise of blessing for those who have the proper attitude toward Him. It’s for those who respect Him and revere Him. We know that when the Bible speaks of fearing God it does not mean to be afraid of Him the way we usually think of fear. We remember that He is a God of love and compassion. We must not be afraid of approaching Him, but it must always be with an attitude of respect. So let’s be respectful and reverent, giving Him the honor He deserves. Then we can expect His blessing.