Re: POWER of PRAYER- No Matter Which Faith You Follow=GOD is With You
Blessed to Be a Blessing
God wants to bless and favor you. He wants you to be wise and discerning and make astute decisions that will bring blessings to your life. However, we need to be careful with what we do with God's blessings. Many of us receive blessings from God, but then we turn them into something selfish.
In Luke, Jesus talks about a man who was blessed: "The land of a rich man produced plentifully, and he thought to himself, 'What shall I do, for I have nowhere to store my crops?'" (Luke 12:16-17, ESV).
God is generous and loves to pour out gifts on his children. The man in this story was blessed abundantly, but as we look closely at the contrast in this story, we see that it takes a turn in the wrong direction.
The blessed man "thought to himself." That is often where the problem begins, my friend. God begins to bless us, and we start thinking, "What am I going to do with this?" When we start wondering what to do with our resources, selfishness usually follows.
Whose crops (blessings) are they? They belong to God. Everything belongs to God! However, this man's mind was becoming selfish. He was beginning to see the gifts from God as things that could be used for his own benefit, and selfishness began to permeate the very fiber of who he was.
""And he said, 'I will do this: 'I will tear down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods.' And I will say to my soul, 'Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.'" (Luke 12:18-19).
We must be very careful when we hear preaching about God's blessings. Our perception of his blessings is vitally important. Do we want to heap blessings on ourselves to create a perfect little cocoon for our comfort and enjoyment? Or do we want to look around us and bless others? Friend, we are blessed from the very beginning of God's covenant of blessing with mankind. We are blessed to be a blessing!
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I urge, then, first of all, that petitions, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for all people -- for kings and all those in authority, that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness. This is good, and pleases God our Savior, who wants all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth. 1 Timothy 2:1-4
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