Be Blessed….Not A Secret

I’ve never met anyone who doesn’t want to be blessed! I want to be blessed. I want our kids to be blessed as well as my extended family, my friends, our nation. Yes, I want God to bless. I am so grateful for His Word, the Bible. Reading it teaches me, encourages me and it instructs me/you/us for all of life. Sometimes we can just glaze over “key” truths and miss its TO THE POINT INSTRUCTIONS…..

Often when I study scripture, I like to study the “life” of the one who wrote the book. The book of James has become one of my favorite books. It is very clear, in fact crystal clear, in the book of James, written by the half brother of Jesus, how to have a blessed life.

First, let me tell you a little about James. Even though he grew up with Jesus and they were related, he did not become a believer until after the resurrection of Jesus. I find that very puzzling. He was around for many of the miracles Jesus performed but still didn’t believe until the greatest of miracles….Jesus’ resurrection.

In light of all the miracles I have experienced lately, James and his writing has greatly encouraged me to pray for miracles and to look for them. Even though miracles didn’t affect James while Jesus was living, knowing he wrote the book of James after he became a believer, plus knowing he was up close and personal with Jesus, makes me hang on every word he wrote.

Back to the subject at hand…Being Blessed……James tells us:

“But whoever looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues in it— not forgetting what they have heard, but DOING IT—THEY WILL BE BLESSED in what they do,” (James 1:25, emphasis added). Wow! Just wow! It was a cold day in January 2010 with me sitting by the fire early in the morning when this verse literally jumped off the page at me! It wasn’t that I didn’t feel blessed…but I wanted to be blessed IN ALL THAT I DO!

So my prayer life from that point on changed and so did my scripture memory. In order for me not to forget, which is very easy for me to do, I needed to implement some changes so that scripture was a part of me and in my mind all the time. My scripture memory has been slow…but oh so rewarding.

When I made changes in 2010, little did I know that it would “Bless” me greatly in all of 2016 and into the early part of 2017 when life’s fiery trials would come in the health of our kids! When we think of blessings, we often think of, or at least I do, blessings being in the form of material blessings, wins, promotions, etc. But some of the greatest blessings have come in the form of being able to stand on God’s promises when being thrown into the “fires of life” unexpectedly! I am utterly amazed when I reflect on how God’s Word HELD ME during these trials.

Yes, God held me but often it was through HIS WORD. He would bring to mind different verses, especially in the night when I felt the enemy attack the most. I would find myself waking up and reciting John 1:1-8, camping on verse 5, “The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it!” Amen and Amen! Also James 1:1-4, ”Consider it JOY my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your FAITH produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete not lacking in anything,” [emphasis added].

Yes, James tells us not “If” we will face trials but says “when!” I hope I am making sense to you, the reader. I desperately want you to have what I have found. Drink God’s word. Eat it. Absorb it. Believe it. DO IT.

Scripture also teaches, ”Hide my word in your heart so that you might not sin against me.” So much more could be said on this topic but I will leave you with this: IF you want to lead and live a BLESSED LIFE, it is not possible without “LIVING GOD’s WORD!” And I might add, in doing this I have seen and experienced the “miraculous” happen.

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