{"id":14839,"date":"2013-09-25T01:00:26","date_gmt":"2013-09-25T06:00:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/?p=14839"},"modified":"2013-09-24T15:55:24","modified_gmt":"2013-09-24T20:55:24","slug":"blessed-blessing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/2013\/09\/25\/blessed-blessing\/","title":{"rendered":"Blessed Blessing"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"SeekingHimLogo\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\n

May God be gracious to us and bless us and make His face shine upon us,
\nthat Your ways may be known on earth, Your salvation among all nations.
\nPsalms 67:1-2<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Everyone loves to be blessed.\u00a0 People don’t typically wander around praying curses for themselves.\u00a0 We, as Christians, have a Father who loves to bless. (Take a look at the Beatitudes in Matthew 5:3-12<\/a>.)\u00a0 Yes, our God is all about blessing His children!<\/p>\n

Why?\u00a0 He loves us.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Why else?\u00a0 So we can bless others.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Ephesians 4:33 tells us that God forgave us, so we can forgive others.<\/p>\n

And in John 13:34 we read that God loves us, so we can love others.<\/p>\n

Romans 12: 6-8 speaks about the gift(s) we were given and how they should be used, “…if, it is serving, let him serve; if it is teaching, let him teach…” We don’t use our gift(s) for ourselves, but for others!<\/p>\n

May God be gracious to us and bless us and make his face shine upon us,
\nthat our ways may be known on earth, your salvation among all nations.
\nPsalms 67:1-2<\/p>\n

When God blesses us, others see and can come to know Him; just like He promised Judah and Israel,<\/p>\n

As you have been an object of cursing among the nations,
\nO Judah and Israel, so will I save you, and you will be a blessing.
\nDo not be afraid, but let your hand be strong,
\nZechariah 8:13<\/p>\n

And, of course, our Jesus leads by example.<\/p>\n

…For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich,
\nyet for your sake he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich,
\n2 Corinthians 8:9<\/p>\n

So… what’s the “catch?” Deuteronomy 28:1-14<\/a> explains how obeying the Lord leads to blessings. In order to be obedient you must know<\/em> His Word.\u00a0 And to know<\/em> His Word and apply it as intended you need to have a RELATIONSHIP<\/b> with him.<\/p>\n

So, what’s the “catch?” You are<\/i><\/b><\/i>. God gets to have you in relationship with Him and that is what He has always wanted.<\/p>\n

* * * * *<\/p>\n

Abba, thank You for blessing me.\u00a0 Thank You for providing rewards for my obedience and discipline for my disobedience.\u00a0 You have shown very clearly in Your Word the consequences of both.\u00a0 Help me to be forever obedient that I may constantly reap the benefits of obedience and help me to keep my hands open to others, as I share what you have given me.\u00a0 Help me to remember that my obedience doesn’t affect myself alone but those around me, as well.\u00a0\u00a0 In Jesus’ name.\u00a0 Amen.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

May God be gracious to us and bless us and make His face shine upon us, that Your ways may be known on earth, Your salvation among all nations. Psalms 67:1-2 Everyone loves to be blessed.\u00a0 People don’t typically wander around praying curses for themselves.\u00a0 We, as Christians, have a Father who loves to bless. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":118,"featured_media":13840,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3020],"tags":[3845,3146,3173,3843,3847,425,3849,1740,3848,3805,3837,3846,3174,3844],"class_list":["post-14839","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-daily-devotions","tag-2-corinthians-89","tag-ahmee-bronaugh","tag-daily-devotional","tag-deuteronomy-281-14","tag-ephesians-433","tag-girlfriends-coffee-hour","tag-god-blesses-us","tag-john-1334","tag-matthew-53-12","tag-psalm-67","tag-psalms-671-2","tag-romans-126-8","tag-seeking-him-devotional","tag-zechariah-813","entry"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/SeekingHimLogo.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p39pHp-3Rl","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14839","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/118"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14839"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14839\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14842,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14839\/revisions\/14842"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13840"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14839"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14839"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14839"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}