According to Luke 19:44, those in Jerusalem at the time of Christ missed the time of their visitation. Wow, when the Holy Spirit approaches my heart with a scripture He knows I need to “do,” – a portion of His Word He knows will save me from harm and bring His blessings into my life – I want to not miss the time of my visitation.
And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold (pay attention to what I’m saying), I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For (because) unto you (that’s you and me) is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.
Luke 2:10-11
And the angels are saying the same thing to you and me, Fear not.
God knows how much great joy there is in the “doing” of His Word, of following and becoming like Jesus. The angels were proclaiming that our captivity to sin was over. Messiah was coming to earth to set us free. Free!
I never got very far with God’s ways unless I was pretty aggressive with implementing them in my life. I think God’s looking for us to go all out with His Word and knows how blessed we’ll be as a result.
I think it’s like this. Am I going to break through, bounce off or not even try to have faith in God’s Word, in what He’s commanding me to do?
I was doing some push ups this morning (4-6-20) when I had this thought. The Bible seems to be full of faith challenges. They’re kind of like what I would call “believing barriers.” “Believing barriers” is the term that came to me while doing the push ups. ☺
Each time we read something like “Praise and thank God in all things, or taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ” we’re challenged in our faith. Will I obey the Word here or not?
Sometimes we choose not to do what the Word says to do out of arrogance, a hard heart, pride, laziness, refusing to give our heart to God, thinking I don’t need to do the Word, spiritual blindness, fear, hurt, hopelessness, discouragement, embarrassment, or just plain rebellion. And sometimes, we may even think “I don’t have to do the Word because of grace” – What deception. I’ve had these kinds of excuses myself.
Satan does not want your life to be blessed by “doing” God’s Word. The devil loves “hearers only” of the Word because they’re no threat to his kingdom of darkness.
I’m finding that if I’ll do what God is commanding me to do in His Word, that it sometimes takes a valiant effort to be consistent with doing it – I ask the Holy Spirit to help me. But, what I’m learning is that there is always a blessing or blessings in what I’m being asked to do – And the blessed reasons for God including a faith challenge in His Word just keep multiplying in me as I do what He wants me to do. One thing for sure, it never hurts to obey God’s Word and it will almost certainly mean I’m stuck in some kind of spiritual rut until I take Him up at His Word and step out to break through one of His believing barriers, one of His faith challenges.
I admit, I didn’t really think there was anything to the “praising and thanking God in all things.” (Same is true of “Husbands love your wife as Christ loved the church and gave himself for her.”) But once I experienced what was happening in my spirit and life as the result of being obedient to God to do it, a real change began to take place in my life. Now, I want to encourage everyone to indulge themselves in the blessings loving their wife like Jesus loves the church, and praising and thanking God in all things will bring in their life. With the reminder of the Holy Spirit, stick to it and you’ll be amazed at what powerful weapons just these two scriptures (and the Bible is full of so many other blessings) can be in your life.
Whoever heeds instruction will find success, and blessed is he who trusts in the LORD.
Proverbs 16:20
Blessed is the man that trusteth in the LORD, and whose hope the LORD is.
Jeremiah 17:7
O LORD of Hosts, how blessed is the man who trusts in You!
Psalm 84:12
I want to find out how blessed I can be in the Lord. There is nothing like the power of His might.
Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him, If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed; And ye shall know (experientially know intimately) the truth, and the truth shall make you free.
John 8:31-32
Free from myself, this world and the lies of our enemy. To find myself absorbed by and living in The Truth, in Jesus. Wow.
“God, please make me hungry for Your Word. Encourage me and help me to do Your Word so my life can be blessed by it. Amen.”
God bless,
Mark
Note: While we may not agree with everything a particular church or Christian group teaches or believes, there are times when we can be blessed by something outside the realm of our current understanding of God.