A Double Blessing To Be Peaceful and Joyful

UV 3545/10000 A Double Blessing to Be Doubly Joyful He makes peace in your borders; He satisfies you with the finest of the wheat. Psalm 147 v 14 Peace and provision are the double blessings the Lord has given us in Christ. The uni-verse evokes the image of a heavenly feast we partake of in the presence of God. The Word of God is compared with the finest wheat. It has a flavour and taste of its own. He gives us peace therefrom for our homes as well as for our nations wherein we are born or live. He sends His word which fulfills His will expeditiously in our lives. For all these reasons it is appropriate for us to praise and worship the Lord in our hearts and in our homes. He heals the pain of our hearts, the areas of need which are not yet satisfied, the quests that have not been fulfilled, the questions not yet answered. It is good for us to wait for Him to reveal His will in these matters, too. His capacity to satisfy is unlimited, infinite, unimaginable even as the universe comprises of stars without number and stretches beyond any astronomers’ imagination. The Lord does not delight in those who exult in their own wealth, power or achievements. He delights in those who humble themselves before Him and look on Him alone as the fountainhead, the source of all blessings. He strengthens such as these in security, in health, in all that they need. The precious promises of God strengthen us with hope and courage even as we battle difficult situations and circumstances of our lives. He provides what we need even as he provides for the birds and beasts in the wild without too much effort on their part. The Word says that He provides for us while we are yet asleep.n Hence, we need not waste a moment to be anxious about any aspect of our lives. We need not be anxious about the future of our children for the Lord is more concerned about them. We need not be worried of what we will eat and drink. Instead, we must enjoy the peace and joy the Lord gives us as these are choice dishes He has placed on our tables, in our lives. Peace and prosperity or well being go hand in hand and the good Lord knows it better than any of us for He knows how we are created. The word says, “Rejoice in the Lord, and again, I say, rejoice!” It implies we should be thankful, joyful foremost for the peace we enjoy and then, we should also be grateful, joyful for the seeds or grains of blessing or well being He has sown in our lives.

Use It Or Lose It

UV 3544/10000 Use it Or Lose It Jesus explained, “ I tell you that to everyone who has ( because he valued his gifts from God and has used them wisely), more will be given; but from the one who does not have (because he disregarded his gifts from God), even what he has will be taken away. Luke 19 v 26 Whatever we have is a gift from God. Hence, if we are faithful in using, investing and multiplying whatever we have, we are rewarded with even more. If we neglect what we have, then what is gifted to us by God will eventually be taken away from us. The minna coin that the master of Jesus’s parable of talents gave has two sides- on one side, is fear of the Master in avoiding what is wrong or displeasing to Him and the other side is love of the Master in doing what is good and pleasing to Him. We please God when we carry out both sides of the coin in everything we desire and attempt to do. The one who kept his resources and talent idle and in fact, buried it had a poor assessment of the Master’s character. He was not grateful for what he received and instead, grudged the fact that he was given the least. The Master being all knowing knew that this servant could be trusted the least and gave him the least. Hence, whether we are given little or more in terms of resources, talents or responsibilities, we should hasten to use it. If we don’t use it, we would lose it. If we stretch our abilities and use it for the glory of God, He will certainly bless us and increase it. We are to give a rendering of accounts to the Lord and Master for all that He has given us- time, health, opportunities, education, resources, network of friends and contacts, technology and so on. Our passion for the Lord should manifest in two dimensions- our fear or respect and reverence for the Lord and our love, desire to please the Master. Everyone is also given a spiritual gift like wise counsel, healing, deliverance, teaching, vision, prophecy and so on. If we prove ourselves faithful in using this gift to bless others, the Lord will expand His grace towards us and increase either the depth of our current gift or give even more anointing and gifts.

Being Established and Anchored in the Lord

UV 3541/10000 Being Established and Anchored in the Lord. The Lord is faithful, who shall establish you, and keep you from all evil. 2 Thessalonians 3 v 3 The key words in this uni-verse are “The Lord is faithful.” By implication, we are not faithful. We have faith but it swings up and down like a pendulum, depending on what happens to us or around us- our circumstances. But, the Lord promises to establish us on the rock foundation of the Rock of Ages – Jesus. He establishes us even as the enemy tries to destabilise us with evil planned against us. The Lord leads us out of evil and keeps us from ALL evil. The emphasis is on ALL evil. The Lord is able to perceive ahead of time any evil that is afoot and He proactively and actively delivers us from it. Jesus is our “ good root”, our strong foundation. The enemy though strong or powerful cannot overcome the strength of our faith, the foundation or root of our lives. We grow downward in our roots into Christ and upward in our fruit. The only way the enemy can get us down if we willfully like Judas choose to betray Jesus, to follow His suggestion. Jesus gave us two clear commandments to love God selflessly and to love our neighbor as we love ourselves. The enemy does not give commandments for He does not have the authority. He neither created us nor sustains us. Hence, He operates through suggestions. The suggestions might often come from our own thoughts or our own voice. The Covid pandemic has destabilised the world. We are told to keep our distance from our neighbours. But, we can increase our proximity or our intimacy with the Lord. His word is the best prophylactic along with prayer against all evil. We can depend only on the Lord for our sustenance and protection. He both guards and guides us on our paths. Hence, we need not fear any evil. We draw our sense of security from our faith in the Lord and His word. The more time we are investing in the Word and in prayer, the more we are anchored in Him, the more secure and established we are in Him.

Increasing Dependence Increases Strength

UV 3540/10000. Increasing Dependence Increases Strength For the eyes of the Lord move to and fro throughout the earth so that He may support those whose heart is completely His. You have acted foolishly in this; therefore, from now on you will have wars. 2 Chronicles 16 v 9 The Lord is the “eye in the sky”. He sees not just all that is happening on earth but He sees our hearts and knows the extent of our commitment, our reliance or dependence on Him. Asa, king of Judah relied not on the Lord but on his ally, the king of Aram or Syria. This offended the Spirit of God and He allowed wars to rise against Asa. Asa had forgotten how the Lord had delivered him and Judah from a larger and more formidable army of Ethiopia and Lubim. Likewise, we too often forget how the Lord had delivered us in the past and act foolishly based on our human reasoning. The Holy Spirit roams all over the world looking for people who are fully committed to the Lord and strengthens such as these. We need to check our level of commitment or dependence on the Lord. Do our eyes shift from the Lord to look for support from our worldly friends and contacts? Like Joshua, we must be totally dependent on the Lord, not relying on our own insight or wisdom for a moment. We should know that the Lord who has been so faithful to us so far, will continue to strengthen, support and deliver us from our mortal and invisible enemies. In every generation, the moment the Lord sees a person with the commitment of Abraham or Noah or St Paul, He chooses to be with them, bless them, enable them, equip and empower. The more we rely on Him, the less our own hopes and expectations will be belied. The more we believe and trust Him, the more victorious we will be in our life’s struggles and temptations. The Holy Spirit will pour a double anointing of His power and grace upon us, strengthen us from within and tweak the circumstances around us. When we are so surrendered to Him, He will make us more than conquerors. In real life, the more we depend on another, the weaker we become but the more we depend on the Lord, the stronger we become, the more victorious we are.

The Multiplier of A Variety of Riches

UV 3539/10000 The Multiplier of A Variety of Riches But you shall remember (with profound respect) the Lord your God, for it is He who is giving you power to make wealth, that He may confirm His covenant which He swore (solemnly promised) to your fathers, as it is this day. Deuteronomy 8 v 18 When we bow before the reign of God in our lives, acknowledging that He rules over us by His sovereign power and authority, we are blessed with a vision of His rainbow even as Noah’s covenant with God was confirmed by a rainbow. The rainbow is God’s palette in the sky displaying that His promises hold good in seven distinct but intimately connected domains of our earthly lives – the spiritual (violet) , intellectual ( indigo) , emotional (blue), material (green), psychological(yellow), relational (orange) and physical (red). When we love, worship and adore Him with all our hearts, He blesses us in all these seven domains. We enjoy riches or wealth in all seven domains. It is the Lord who gives us the power to multiply riches in all domains of life. It is the Lord who gives us physical health. Health is real wealth and much more vital than material wealth. It is the Lord who blesses us with good and healthy relationships with our spouse, children, wider family and friends. It is the Lord who gives us the emotional riches of joy and positivity. He is the One who boosts or encourages us so that we have nothing else to boast about. He blesses our work, our hands and our ideas so that we take up productive projects. He gives us our intellect and stimulates creativity within through divine inspiration and leading. He blesses us with all spiritual blessings from the heavenly realms in Christ. It is exciting that apart from the Old and New Covenant, we can make personal covenants and commitments to the Lord. We do so by solemnly asking the Lord in faith to help us with specific challenges, by making vows or commitments. When we lift a particular promise verse before the Lord, we are asking Him to make a personal covenant or inviolable agreement with Him on that issue or matter. For instance, if we pray over Psalm 91 verse 14, “ I will satisfy you with long life and after that, give you eternal life.” It has two terms of agreement- longevity and eternity. We are agreeing with the Lord that we should have longevity and eternal life in Christ. If we say, “ I am afraid, I might die young,” we are disagreeing with God’s word and agreeing with the enemy who wants to cut lives short before we fulfill God’s will and purpose or realize our full potential.

Increase and Decrease

UV 3538/10000 Increase and Decrease I will multiply on you man and animal; and they will increase and be fruitful. And I will cause you to be inhabited as you were formerly, and I will do better (things) for you than at your beginning. Then you will know (with great confidence) that I am the Lord. Ezekiel 36 v 11 The Lord promises to make us even more prosperous post- Covid than before. He will multiply us and cause us to increase and be fruitful physically, intellectually, socially, emotionally and spiritually. He Himself inhabits our souls and occupies our hearts. He promises to do better things for us than before, than at the beginning of our faith walk with Him. He does it to boost our faith and increase the impact of our testimony of His faithfulness. Hence, we can look forward with hope, courage and confidence at the future, at our latter days. He will send the latter rain as a heavy downpour not as the shower of blessings we had experienced at the start of our journey with Him. The Lord strengthens us to face our challenges and He establishes our work and proves our words. He does not let any of it be in vain or fall to the ground without result or impact. He keeps us from lurking evil from within or without. As the days pass, we should be increasingly optimistic and joyful, not depressed or gloomy. We should deal effectively with anything that blocks or divides our blessings. It could be doubt, regrets, fears, hurts, bitterness, disappointments. The Lord will turn the weapons of the enemy into sweetness or sources of glad tidings. Our focus, too should be to “be better, feel better, do better.” In other words, we must keep excelling in whatever we put our hands or minds to. On achieving any measure of success, we should turn it into praise and glory to the Lord. The more blessed we are, we should humble ourselves more before the Lord. This is the only way to avoid pride and defeat the temptation to take the glory for ourselves. He should increase and we should decrease as time passes on.

The Guarantor

UV 3537/10000 The Guarantor You shall serve (only) the Lord your God, and He shall bless your bread and water. I will also remove sickness from among you. Exodus 23 v 25 When we respect, revere, adore God and God alone, we are serving Him. Service to God is genuine and sincere worship from the depth of our souls. When we do so, He gives us three amazing promises contained in this uni-verse and partly in the next verse; first, He will bless our bread and water. In other words, He blesses our provision for life, the material and the spiritual victuals, too for bread and water are metaphors for the WORD OF GOD that we should eat or consume, digest and assimilate and the Spirit of whom we should drink. We should drink of the water that will never make us thirst again, as Jesus said to the Samaritan woman. The second specific blessing He promises, which is most relevant and needed by everyone in a world afflicted by the Covid pandemic and the thousands of deaths resulting therefrom, is that He will remove sickness from among us. We do not have to fear the virus like the rest of the unbelieving world. To this add the promise in the next verse that He will enable us to fulfill our days on earth. It implies that we will live fully and wholly for the days that the Lord intends that we live on this planet before we shift residence to our eternal and permanent home in heaven. The next verse also holds the promise that we shall not be barren or unproductive. We will be fruitful and blessed in all that we attempt. Our work will be established and we will not be working in vain. We will enjoy the fruit of our labour. The promise that our children will not suffer miscarriage or be barren implies that the Lord will continue our line through our physical and spiritual offspring into the next generation. No one but God can give these guarantees of long and fulfilling life, of abundant provision, of continuity of our lineage, of healing and removing sickness from our midst. Jesus is the Guarantor of the promises given by Jehovah, the Father. The Holy Spirit is the One who reminds us constantly of these promises in our difficult situations of life. God’s promises cover the entire gamut of our needs from the basic or physical to the material, monetary and spiritual. All He needs from us is whole hearted devotion to Him.