Tag: Blessed to bless others

Blessed Are The Godly

On By Ed AlgreenIn Answered Prayer, Appreciation, Godly actions, Godly example, Godly lives, Needs, Praise, Recognize God, Worship2 Comments

DATE POSTED Monday, 2022-07-18
WRITTEN AT: O Brien, FL

SCRIPTURE FROM: Psalm 97:10-12
TRANSLATION: New Living Translation (NLT)

BIBLE TEXT: 10 You who love the Lord, hate evil! He protects the lives of his godly people and rescues them from the power of the wicked.
11 Light shines on the godly, and joy on those whose hearts are right.
12 May all who are godly rejoice in the Lord and praise his holy name!

APPLICATION: Some of you reading this devotional today may not have made any spiritual decisions yet in your life. The bible teaches that you are an unbeliever, because you have chosen to ignore the teachings of Jesus Christ. It is impossible for you to fit the description of the righteous mentioned in our Scripture, because you have chosen to say no to the invitation by God to know Him and to live according to His example and His teachings. You cannot be right-with-God, or righteous, without a personal relationship with Him. Let me encourage you to continue reading my blog each day, because my whole purpose is to teach you about the Lord I love and adore, with hopes that you will one day hear His call on your life. Now to apply the actual teaching for today, I believe that the Holy Spirit, through the Psalmist, is convincing those of us that have accepted the Lord Jesus, and are striving to live a life patterned after His character and teachings, a few things worthy of our attention:
1. Hate evil – Evil is just the opposite to everything else that we read in the Bible, for we know full well that Jesus is LOVE and He teaches repeatedly that we are to love others, just as He has loved us. But I believe that God is saying that we should not live a double life. In other words, don’t say that you love God and everything He stands for, yet sit idly by and accept the evil that impacts our lives by the unrighteous. Furthermore, don’t promote the evil of the unrighteous by supporting their products and their habits. For example, the righteous may never consider entering into a prostitution house, but they will sit in the privacy of their own home and purchase, or watch a movie that promotes that lifestyle. If we are to hate evil, I believe that refers to evil in any form, not just that which we might be embarrassed for our friends to see us entering into;
2. God is our Protector and Rescuer – I love those movies where the super cops swoop in and rescues the good people caught under protest by the evil thuds! This is kind ‘a what I think of in this teaching by the Psalmist. I can only imagine a loving Father looking in on a situation where one of His children are being taken advantage of, abused, mistreated, cheated, or harmed by an evil man/woman. I could easily see God becoming a lot more protective than the most loving dad would do if he saw someone about to mistreat his daughter;
3. Our reward for living righteously – Light shines on the godly and joy is awarded in their hearts! Do you suppose that ‘light’ might be the light of the SON? Darkness brings despair and disappointment. Light brings joy, peace and everlasting hope. Our everlasting hope is in knowing that because of our relationship with the Lord Jesus, we will one day be with Him and the Father in heaven for all of eternity! Glory be to God forever and forever!
4. Our expectation in return – Praise God from whom all blessings flow! Let’s stop burying ourselves in disappointment like those without hope. Instead, let’s learn to praise God above all the heavenly hosts, praise Father, Son and Holy Ghost. Amen!

BLESSING(S) NOTED: God rewards those who accept Him and are faithful in following His example and His teachings. Like our Father, God, let’s determine in ourselves to always hate evil.

PRAYER: Lord You are so good to us. From creation, to salvation, to eternal life with You and the Father in heaven, believers are blessed beyond our wildest imagination as to everything You have in store for us! Thank You loving Savior for watching over, protecting and keeping us until You return to take us home to glory. Please speak intently to the hearts of those who have shown no interest in knowing or accepting their Lord and Savior. May today be the day that they will hear Your voice and harken to Your call. Be glorified in everything accomplished by Your children today. May we always hate evil and promote our righteous Savior. AMEN!

FOOTNOTE: There are two more pages on my blog that will provide you with additional information, one of them being ‘To Know Jesus’. If you have been challenged to make a decision today after reading this devotional, please click on the above page, or speak with a local Bible Teaching Pastor, or contact me at NuggetsFromGodsWord@outlook.com. Please allow someone to pray with you and give you help and/or encouragement as you begin, or continue your walk with Jesus. Words underlined in my blog might indicate a link to a song that came to mind as I wrote the devotional. Feel free to click on the link and listen as you continue to read or pray. If this devotional was forwarded to you and you would like to see more, please go to Nuggets From God’s Word and read more, or you may freely subscribe for a daily email conveniently containing each day’s devotional. You may also visit me on Spotify and listen to Nuggets while you’re out and about. I would encourage you to find a church home near by your home, and attend as frequently as you could. Get to know God, and allow His people to encourage and strengthen you in your Christian walk, while making every effort to be a blessing to them. God is at work among His people! Please consider growing in your faith, as you worship with fellow believers!

Blessed to Bless Others

On By Ed AlgreenIn Bless Others, Blessing, Patience, Wait PatientlyLeave a comment

Post Date:

 Tuesday, 2017-06-27
SCRIPTURE

From:

 Psalm 40:1-3 (GW)

Text:

 1 I waited patiently for the Lord.
    He turned to me and heard my cry for help.
2     He pulled me out of a horrible pit,
        out of the mud and clay.
    He set my feet on a rock
        and made my steps secure.
3     He placed a new song in my mouth,
        a song of praise to our God.
            Many will see this and worship.
            They will trust the Lord.
OBSERVATION:
It seems like the Psalmist was feeling a sense of despair, but he patiently went before the Lord pleading for help to overcome. In these verses he is celebrating that not only did God see him through his challenging low times, but He placed him at such a solid high point in his life, that he celebrated in what sounded like a new song, from a new heart, because it was coming from a renewed man! This not only brought joy and honor to David, but because of the awesome change in his life, this touched the lives of many others!
APPLICATION:
How often do we feel so despondent, and really down and out? How often do we feel like there is little hope for us, because we feel so low and forgotten by God and friends? The Psalmist teaches us from his experience that we are in no position to demand anything of God, for we are to wait patiently before God. We have to remember that God always answers our prayer, so we need not feel despondent if He does what’s best for us at the time and answer differently than what we might be wanting or expecting. So when we ask of God, let’s remember our manners and always thank God for His love and awesome wisdom in answering right! Friends, if God always answered everything we ask of Him in the way that we demand it, we would be in a heap of trouble, and we would quickly lose value in God because He simply rubber stamped everything we told Him. Remember, His ways are way above ours ways, His knowledge way exceeds ours and even to His thoughts – they are way above ours. He is the creator of everything we touch, see or experience. So our most urgent and impossible requests are but a speck of dirt to Him. Let us therefore go confidently and patiently before the Lord, knowing that He loves us as His very own child, and will answer us at the best time with the very best resolution for us, and that would bring glory to Himself. We are also reminded that as we wait for the Lord, and celebrate His response to our prayers, others will celebrate with us and grow from our experience. I bet you never thought you would be an evangelist as easy as that, did you? Seek to glorify God friends, and watch how it helps others! 
PRAYER:
Precious Lord, we are such impatient and selfish individuals. Please help us to communicate (pray) openly with You about our blessings, our needs and our desires. But Lord, help us as we pray to realize that we are not God, so the reason that we ask is because we admire the wisdom, love and generosity of our awesome God. Please remind us to always ask, and then to be patient as You answer in a way that is perfect for us and that will result in glory to Yourself. Lord, as we are blessed by You, I pray that we will be filled with such celebration that others around us will also be blessed and drawn to You. AMEN!
FOOTNOTE:
There are two more pages on my blog that will provide you with additional information, one of them being ‘To Know Jesus’.  If you have been challenged to make a decision today after reading this devotional, please click on the above page, or speak with a local Bible Teaching Pastor, or contact me at NuggetsFromGodsWord@outlook.com. Please allow someone to pray with you and give you help and/or encouragement as you begin, or continue your walk with Jesus. Words underlined in my blog could indicate a link to a song that came to mind as I wrote the devotional. Feel free to click on the link and listen as you continue to read or pray. If this devotional was forwarded to you and you would like to see more, please go to Nuggets From God’s Word and read more, or you may freely to subscribe for a daily email conveniently containing each day’s devotional. If you are anywhere near the Highlands County, Florida area and do not have a church home, I would be thrilled to welcome you at Bible Fellowship Church, located at 3750 Hammock Rd, Sebring, FL 33872! Click the link to check out service times and/or other special activities. God is at work among us! Please consider coming to worship with us!