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Daily Bible Blessing-55

Though you have made me see troubles, many and bitter, you will restore my life again; from the depths of the earth you will again bring me up. (Psalm 71:20)

The Psalmist here conveys the one feeling that keeps believers going even when they face bitter troubles in their earthly sojourn-HOPE. A couple of times, he makes this feeling known to his God in this song of his....For you have been my hope, O Sovereign Lord, my confidence since my youth. (Psalm 71:5)......But as for me, I will always have hope; I will praise you more and more. (Psalm 71:14) The Apostle Paul wrote to the believers in Corinth....He has delivered us from such a deadly peril, and he will deliver us. On him we have set our hope that he will continue to deliver us....(2 Corinthians 1:10)
We as believers in Jesus Christ can continually hope that God who has called us into fellowship with him through his son will surely deliver us, though we see troubles, many and bitter in our lives too.

Daily Bible Blessing-54

When Job's three friends, Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite and Zophar the Naamathite, heard about all the troubles that had come upon him, they set out from their homes and met together by agreement to go and sympathize with him and comfort him. (Job 2:11)

This is one example of how people set out with good intentions but finally end up doing more harm than good. These friends of Job brought misery rather than comfort for him. Finally we read that God was angry with them for speaking things that were not right and asked them to go to Job and sacrifice a burnt offering for themselves. Job prayed for them and God accepted his prayer and did not deal with them according to their folly. The best part of it all was that God blessed Job after he prayed for his friends who had brought him misery......"After Job had prayed for his friends, the Lord made him prosperous again and gave him twice as much as he had before.(Job 42:10)" Two things we can learn here: one that, we must be compassionate in our dealings with others, especially our brothers and sisters in Christ, more so when they pass through trials and tribulations; and the second that God will bless us when we intercede for them who deal unjustly with us.

Daily Bible Blessing-53

DBB-53

The LORD will fulfill [his purpose] for me; your love, O LORD, endures forever - do not abandon the works of your hands.(Psalm 138:8)

Are you sure that the Lord will fulfill his purpose for you? The KJV version reads like this, "The LORD will perfect that which concerneth me: thy mercy, O LORD, endureth for ever: forsake not the works of thine own hands. (Psalm 138:8)" Fulfilling his purpose for us is perfecting us and the work is in progress in each of our lives. None of us can say that we are perfect, because what we are, however exalted, is only because of his mercy and grace. What would be our condition if the Lord withdrew his grace for a while? That would have disastrous consequences. But the Lord does not do that because of his perfection in faithfulness. As the Psalmist says here: his love endures forever. We too, can like the Psalmist pray to God that he may not abandon us, the work of his hands. Yes, he will perfect us and glorify himself. Praise the Lord.

Daily Bible Blessing-52

But I am afraid that just as Eve was deceived by the serpent's cunning, your minds may somehow be led astray from your sincere and pure devotion to Christ. (2 Corinthians 11:3)

Paul the Apostle, had fears that some of the believers in the Church at Corinth would go astray; and the example that he gave them was that of Eve. The enemy is cunning and traps believers in different ways, making them walk away from the path of sincere and pure devotion to Christ. The Apostle Peter exhorts us in this manner, "Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that your brothers throughout the world are undergoing the same kind of sufferings. (1 Peter 5:8,9)"The best thing we as believers can do when the enemy tries to lead us astray from our sincere and pure devotion to Christ is follow the advice that we read in the book of James i.e. Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. (James 4:7)
May God strengthen each one of us to do that.

Daily Bible Blessing-51

"If the God of my father, the God of Abraham and the Fear of Isaac, had not been with me, you would surely have sent me away empty-handed. But God has seen my hardship and the toil of my hands, and last night he rebuked you." (Genesis 31:42)

 Jacob had some harsh words to say to Laban, his  father-in-law and uncle, who pursued and caught up with him as he fled,......................"I have been with you for twenty years now. Your sheep and goats have not miscarried, nor have I eaten rams from your flocks. I did not bring you animals torn by wild beasts; I bore the loss myself. And you demanded payment from me for whatever was stolen by day or night. This was my situation: The heat consumed me in the daytime and the cold at night, and sleep fled from my eyes. It was like this for the twenty years I was in your household. I worked for you fourteen years for your two daughters and six years for your flocks, and you changed my wages ten times.(Genesis 31:38-41). But we also see his trust in God coming to the fore as he confronted Laban and that is what we read in the title verse above. He said that it was only God who had blessed him even though he was cheated by his uncle. We must remember that God is always "for us" even though people may forsake us....Let us trust in his love continually.