January 23 – Where It All Begins

God blesses those who are poor and realize their need for him, for the Kingdom of Heaven is theirs.- Matthew 5:3 (NLT)

Blessedness is a word pronounced on people, as recipients of all the goodness of God. This blessedness produces in us a condition of happiness. Each of the nine promises in this passage from Matthew 5:3-11 are promises on the way to true happiness. Such happiness comes from God and which we receive it as we abide by the conditions in these verses. Today’s promise of happiness or blessing comes to us when we realize that we need Jesus because we can do nothing for ourselves spiritually.  We have no reserve to draw from, no works, because we are bankrupt spiritually.  We can’t bring ourselves to true happiness or receive the promised blessing from God on our own effort. We must trust in God by faith. When we realize that we have nothing that qualifies us and we acknowledge our condition we turn to God for help.  Our acknowledgement of our need for God is a blessing. This is where it all begins. No one can get into the Kingdom of Heaven except through acknowledging their need for God’s help.  This is where the entrance into the Kingdom of Heaven begins and it all comes from God through blessings. 

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September 30 – Strength and Peace

“The Lord gives strength to his people; the Lord blesses his people with peace.” Psalm 29:11 (NIV)

We sometimes look to God for a blessing in our lives without really thinking what a blessing will do for us. The psalmist here speaks of two ways that he found that God blesses his people. Although he describes only one of them as a blessing. We do need however, to consider the strength we get from God as a part of His blessing. Our verse speaks of the peace which God gives us as a blessing and we easily concur with that. Yes, when we are distracted by something that happens or by something upsets us we can find peace by trusting in the Lord and the peace comes from God in response to our trusting. It is from God, our Lord that we get strength to continue in faith and it is from Him that we receive the blessing of peace. May God's peace bless you today, all day.

April 25 – For All, No Matter Who, No Matter What

“For there is no difference between Jew and Gentile—the same Lord is Lord of all and richly blesses all who call on him,” Romans 10:12

Our God is a rich God. He is the One who made the universe and is in control of His creation. When we accept His Son Jesus as our Savior we become a part of God’s family regardless of our ethnic or racial background . We are thrilled with the reminder in our verse today of the way God blesses all of us, no matter who we are, when we turn to Him for help.  We read God blessing in our dialing lives and our verse reminds us that God blesses richly.  Just think of what this means. God doesn’t just bless a little here and a little there. He takes care of our needs and supplied abundantly. If we stop and think of how our God treats us we realize that He blesses so much it runs over.