March 30
Deut 13:1-15:23 | PS 71:1-24 | Prov 12:5-7 | Luke 8:40-9:6
You work and plan your whole life. You want enough to care and raise your children. You want enough to have a house. You also want enough to take you through retirement. There is nothing wrong with this. But the hardest of work and the best of plans often don’t turn out as you expected. Houses breakdown. Investments are not as predictable as you thought. There is a choice. Do you desire the best that the world has to offer? Is your desire the best that money can buy? Or, do you desire God’s blessings for your life. Realize there are limits to what even our best plans offer, but there are no limits to God’s blessings.
We read in Deuteronomy 14:28-29, ““At the end of every third year you shall bring out the tithe of your produce of that year and store it up within your gates. And the Levite, because he has no portion nor inheritance with you, and the stranger and the fatherless and the widow who are within your gates, may come and eat and be satisfied, that the Lord your God may bless you in all the work of your hand which you do.” They could have thought, but I worked the land hard for this, why should I give it to another? Why? It is in getting our eyes off of ourselves that we learn to depend on Him, and position ourselves to be blessed. We read a similar message when one willingly released all debts at the end of 7 years in 15:6, “For the Lord your God will bless you just as He promised you; you shall lend to many nations, but you shall not borrow; you shall reign over many nations, but they shall not reign over you.” Concerning the poor we read in 15:10-11, “You shall surely give to him, and your heart should not be grieved when you give to him, because for this thing the Lord your God will bless you in all your works and in all to which you put your hand. For the poor will never cease from the land; therefore I command you, saying, ‘You shall open your hand wide to your brother, to your poor and your needy, in your land.’” In these verses we learn it is not simply the act of freely giving, but the state of our heart, our attitude in the process.
We read in Luke 8:43-44, “Now a woman, having a flow of blood for twelve years, who had spent all her livelihood on physicians and could not be healed by any, came from behind and touched the border of His garment. And immediately her flow of blood stopped.” She used the best that money could buy, but remain unhealed until she received God’s blessing through faith. We read in Deuteronomy 15:16-17, the process of becoming a bondservant. These men and women had the legal right to be freed, but because of their love for the one they served they willingly remained a servant to their master. The writers of the Epistles, even James and Jude, the actual half-brothers of Jesus, referred to themselves as bondservants of Christ. With Jesus no longer walking on the Earth, they could have chosen to go back to their former lives. But no! Having tasted the blessings of life with Jesus, they realized nothing compares to a life under His blessings. May we all choose the same. With our eyes on Him, both here and through eternity, even if we die in our pursuit of Him, we should all prefer to be recipients of His blessings than desiring the best that we can personally muster up. He conquered both sin and death, so we can live the fearless and blessed life that He desires for us. Choose Him!
Messages from Pastor Lloyd Pulley: