Blessed: January 7, 2013

TODAYS WORD FOR MONDAY JANUARY 7, 2013

BLESSED

DEFINITION:

Praiseworthy; consecrated; sacred; sanctified; invoke God’s favor upon; made happy; fortunate or prosperous.

SCRIPTURE:

“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ.” Ephesians 1:3.

KNOWLEDGE AND EXPERIENCE: 

Most everyone that has read the Bible realizes that Old Testament people lived under the age of law based on the Ten Commandments. The purpose of the law was to show God’s people the way to practical holiness and to reveal to them God’s nature, and His plan for how they should live. The law was designed to protect all of us from the evils of the world by defining sin. Christ came into the world to fulfill the law by taking upon Himself the penalty of the sins of all who believe in Him. During Christ’s earthly ministry, He gave us His promise of the “BLESSED HOPE” of His return for those of us that have put our trust in Him.

This “BLESSED HOPE” is the most uplifting aspect of our knowing Jesus as our Savior. Every believer that has accepted Jesus as Savior is looking for that Blessed hope of His coming again to take us with Him. This “BLESSED HOPE” is prophesied many times. In fact, for every prophecy recorded in the Bible concerning the first coming of Jesus, there are eight prophecies on His second coming --- which is our” BLESSED HOPE.” To make sure that we understand that Jesus was coming again, the second time, there are 2,163 references in the scriptures. God fulfills all His promises so all of us as believers can look forward to that day with great assurance.

In Matthew, chapter five, we read the words of Jesus, as He preached the Sermon on the Mount, about what we call the Beatitudes. Jesus told the multitudes that were listening, the words that have been mentioned often down through the centuries. Jesus said, blessed are the poor in spirit, blessed are those that mourn, blessed are the meek, blessed are the hungry, blessed are the merciful, blessed are the pure in heart, blessed are the peacemakers, and blessed are the persecuted.

Through this Sermon on the Mount, Jesus was describing the traits He wanted in His followers. Jesus said that those who lived out these traits were blessed. Jesus lived out these traits in His own life. Today Jesus blesses us when we honor Him by following His example and making it our goal to become like Him.

When the building of the Temple was complete and the Ark of the Covenant was put in place, Solomon (I Kings 8:56-61) first prayed and praised God for His blessing on the building of the Temple. And then the scripture says that Solomon rose from his knees, as he was kneeling in front of the Ark praying to God, and spread his hands to the heavens and blessed all the assembly of Israel with a loud voice saying: “Blessed be the Lord.”

Solomon recognized that Israel had been blessed and their blessings come from God and he praised God for those blessings.

Daily God blesses us, as it is written in James 1:17, “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning.” Just as Solomon gave his praise to God, we should give praise to God for all the ways He has blessed us.

LEARNING:

Our memory verse for this week is found in Genesis 1:1.

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.

PRAYER:

Help me to count my blessings each day. Thank You for the way You have blessed my life and the lives of my family. Help me to be a blessing to others today. Thank You for the assurance of the “Blessed Hope” of Your coming again to establish us in Your glorious Kingdom.