Bless The Lord

Monday, January 8, 2024

Good morning, Lord

Verse of the Day: James 1:17 ►Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.

Memory verse: Romans 8:32 ►

He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?

Today's reading: GENESIS 20-22 MATTHEW 6:19-34

Bless The Lord

A memory verse from the past was: Psalm 103:1-2

Bless the Lord, O my soul; And all that is within me, bless His holy name! Bless the Lord, O my soul, And forget not all His benefits:

Out of scripture, why memorize a verse that says, "Bless the Lord"?

We memorize scripture in obedience.

Deuteronomy 11:18

18 “You shall therefore lay up these words of mine in your heart and in your soul, and you shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes.

Proverbs 6:21

21 Bind them on your heart always;

tie them around your neck.

We memorize to stay free from sin.

Psalm 119:11

I have stored up your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you.

We memorize scripture to show who we are.

2 Corinthians 3:3 And you show that you are a letter from Christ delivered by us, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts.

Memorizing is scripture part of our 'soul restoration'(Psalm23)

Romans 12:2

Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

So why verses that say, "Bless the Lord"?

Obviously, God is the origin of all blessing and blessings. He is the source of all things good and perfect, James 1:17. So how do we bless God?

Writers have said that 'blessing' God is a form of praise and that is so. But Let's look at it from a place of obedience. How is that?

Matthew 22: 37-40 includes the charge to 'love God with all...'.

A tithe is understood to be 10% of all we have-all we have has come from God-it all originated in Him-it all belongs to Him-why does He need it back?

If God is love, why does He need our love returned? That question does not even sound rational to us. When we are truly loved and love, we say that love is 'returned'.

Loving God means that we return everything in that we give Him our all. We love Him with all we are. He loves us and we 'return' that love.

When we have children, we 'give' them to the Lord. All children In Christ eventually go back to their heavenly Father.

God does not 'need' to be blessed by us; the blessings are all His. A worshipping heart will return blessing to the Lord-blessing upon blessing to the Lord-because a worshipping heart is a truly loving heart.

So, "Bless the Lord, oh my soul!"

...because He loves us...

Father in Heaven,

I confess I do not bless you enough. Teach me to return Your blessings from the love you have placed in my heart.

Loving and merciful God!

In the name of Christ Jesus,

Amen