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Devotional - Blessed By The Best
Posted : 12 Jun, 2009 06:30 PM
�Blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD, And whose hope is the LORD.� � Jeremiah 17:7
Spirituality in the 21st century needs an extreme makeover. Nowadays, it�s common for people to subscribe to what I call �Burger King Theology� because they want their faith their way. I can see it now: �Can I get a super-sized salvation special with no holiness and extra blessings please?� Sure, you�ll probably never hear any reasonable individual utter these words, but this mindset prevails in our culture. When you want to know what people REALLY think or feel, take their words and weigh them against their actions. When they�re inconsistent, the words lose value more often than not. Lots of people say they want to be �blessed�, but their actions tell a completely different story.
The term �blessed� in Jeremiah 17:7, but also particularly in Deuteronomy and the Psalms, describes the benefits that accrue to one who is devoted to the Lord and His Word. Blessed people are not people who necessarily enjoy materialism; they enjoy the experiences of hope and joy, independent of outward circumstances. Material wealth is not a blanket promise in the Bible, but the comfort of knowing we will be provided for is assured. God bestows blessing on His children from His wealth. And because He is the chief blessing, His blessing is emotional, relational, spiritual, physical and eternal. Interestingly enough, our generation is really no different than the people in the Old Testament. They erroneously thought that possessing affluence served as proof that you were �blessed�. Some of the most miserable people I know are people that have more money than they know what to do with. They wouldn�t call themselves �blessed�, even though most people would beg to differ.
One of my mentors told me "That which I achieve too easily, I soon devalue." For those of you running hard after Jesus, being blessed means being sensitive to His voice at the expense of your obedience. God's voice isn't some boisterous baritone booming from the Heavens; it's a gentle prompting within. Obeying God in little things, not big ones, is the key to learning how to be blessed. Obedience precedes blessing (Luke 11:28).
Those who are truly blessed are those who willfully obey the Word of God by trusting in Christ with an aim toward being conformed to His likeness. The human heart demonstrates its owner by its obedience, as this is the clearest expression of our devotion to Christ. The heart whose owner is God is utterly happy. Put another way, you can�t walk in disobedience and expect to be blessed because disobedience is essentially unbelief. Those who are most aware of God�s presence in their lives are those who love Jesus with a passion and who have abandoned disobedience.
�One of the greatest blessings in the world is that God doesn't answer all of our prayers the way we think He should.� - Unknown
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