Good Morning Everyone,
Our theme for this month: “Patience”
Our Bible verse for today: “May God be gracious to us and bless us; look on us with favor so that Your way may be known on earth, Your salvation among all the nations.” Psalm 67:1-2 (HCSB)
Our thought for today: “We have been blessed so we can be a blessing.”
In Psalm 67:1 the Psalmist prayed for God’s blessing to be upon the people. That’s nice. We all want to be blessed by God. But wait, what was the intended purpose of God’s blessing upon His people? Was it simply so they could sit back, relax, and enjoy a comfy lifestyle? No. In verse two he makes it clear that the purpose of the blessing that was asked for in verse one, was so that God’s ways could be known on the earth, His salvation among all the nations. God’s people were being blessed so they could then be a blessing.
It’s a common theme all throughout the Bible. God blesses His people so they can in turn bless others in His name, and all so that His ways and His salvation will become known throughout the whole earth. We know this. Both the Old and New Testaments teach the people of God to go out into the world and bless people so they will experience God’s love and come to know Him in a real and personal way. Jesus did this, and then He commissioned us to go and do it too.
But this business of going out into the world and sharing God’s blessings with people can be messy and frustrating. Many times those we offer the blessings to either refuse to receive them, or don’t appreciate them, or they do receive them but it doesn’t seem to make any noticeable difference. That can be frustrating. How do we deal with it? Well mostly, we just keep on keeping on. We just patiently continue to do what the Lord told us to do and trust that in His way and in His time it will make a difference.
In Genesis 18:18 God told Abraham that ultimately, eventually, all the nations of the earth would be blessed through him. But Abraham never got to see it. In fact, on the front end of that promise Abraham couldn’t even imagine how it could be so. And yet, the promise did come to pass. The little nation of Israel has been the most influential nation in history. Jesus, the Messiah, the Savior, came from the line of Abraham. Now for 2000 years since then, the entire world has indeed been blessed by the spiritual descendants of Abraham, the followers of Christ, as they go out into the world sharing the blessings and preaching the Good News.
And so it continues. Today you and I – the people of God in this age, have been blessed and are being blessed, so we can in turn be a blessing to others. Sometimes it isn’t easy. Sometimes there don’t appear to be any immediate results from it. But be patient and do it anyway. It will make a difference. I encourage you to make it a point to be a blessing to someone today.
God Bless,
Pastor Jim
Oak Hill Baptist Church 