TODAY’S DEVOTION (TUESDAY 1ST AUGUST 2023)**
“One thing I have desired of the Lord, that will I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to inquire in His temple.” Psalm 27:4 NKJV
WELCOME TO THE 213th DAY OF OUR YEAR OF SIGNS AND WONDERS.
Blessed be the name of the LORD who daily loads us with benefits! Blessed be His glorious name for bringing us into another glorious month in the year 2023! I am persuaded that the God who fed, kept, and led us through the previous month, will be abundantly available for us in this new month.
The Bible spoke about counting your blessings. It says;
“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: “ Psalm 103:1-2 NKJV
It takes counting our blessings not to forget His benefits. I believe this is one of the scriptures that inspired the hymnal, *“count Your blessings, name them one by one.”*Someone could say, “there is nothing to count in my life.” O yes, there is, even if you do not have a place to live in, food to eat, or whatever. That scripture even shows us things to count. It says;
“Who forgives all your iniquities, who heals all your diseases, Who redeems your life from destruction, who crowns you with lovingkindness and tender mercies, Who satisfies your mouth with good things, So that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.” Psalm 103:3-5 NKJV
You may not have a place to live in, some food to eat, or whatever, as you may have said, but there are sins in your life that God has forgiven you of. That is a blessing; the blessing of forgiveness. All of us, rich and poor, small and great, have this blessing to count. People who count this one, will come into great favor with the LORD and enjoy amazing miracles.
There are diseases God did not, and will never allow to kill you. That also is a blessing to count. It is called the blessing of divine healing or divine health. We all have been sick at one time or the other. But we are still alive today. It is a major blessing to count.
You may not have food to eat but you are not lying on a sick bed in the Hospital. Count that blessing. You may not have food to eat, but you are not looking for medication to take either, neither are you looking for money to carry out a surgery on your body.
THAT IS A BLESSING TO COUNT – THE BLESSING OF HAVING THE GREAT PHYSICIAN AS YOUR LORD AND PERSONAL SAVIOUR.
Counting that blessing, in spirit and in truth, can open other doors of blessings to begin to flow in your life. A people who do not know how to count their blessings, will remain counted among those who are being oppressed of the devil, or other dark forces of a fallen life.
Counting blessings has a way of preparing our hearts to receive things from the LORD. It has a way of working on our hearts. It is one way we keep our hearts with all diligence, especially from worries. You will never rise in life, allowing your heart to be filled with things that will not move you forward, especially worries.
There are people that curses are not grounding. Worries are the very forces grounding their lives. Worrying is not a good thing. It is the source of so many dark things in our lives.
For instance, through worry, you can become sick, weak, broken, and so forth. Through worrying you can lose your motivation for work, motivation to be friendly, kind, joyful, motivation for marriage, happy family life, etc. Worrying especially about things we cannot change, is one of the greatest killers of visions, momentum, zeal for life, and success.
Friend, worry will remove progress from your life and give you stagnation as a gift. There are people who have woken up from their beds and refused to go out, not because they do not have where to go to, or what to do, but because worry locked them inside their houses, took the keys and walked away.
That is how cruel worry can be. It can kill us, our funeral, and take us to the grave without a demon helping it. Worry can make you promiscuous, yes, it can make a once disciplined and chaste person, immoral and perverse. It can make a once holy child of God, a filthy and ungodly person. Worry has taken many of us from the mountains of God’s holiness to the valley of sin, iniquity, and trespass.
For instance, how many ladies (who were keeping themselves for the LORD), have become weak in faith and embraced a life of sleeping with men who come their way because of the worry for marriage? So many!
MOST PEOPLE WHO GO AFTER OTHER PEOPLE’S HUSBANDS WORRY ABOUT NOT HAVING THEIR OWN.
Most alcoholics were given the gift of ruining their lives with liquor and all that by worry. Most drug addicts were sent there by worry. The gates of death have been lifted over people through worry. It is a new month, do not spend any day of this month worrying. It will never bless you. It will diminish and eventually break you.
This is the 8th month of the year. Eight is the number of new beginning. Look forward to new beginning. Do not go into this month worrying about what you cannot change, or what you will eat, wear, drink, and all that. If you do, you will open your life up to darkness; you will become vulnerable to devils.
You will be taken from the place of reason to the place of folly.
Spend this month counting your blessings, and naming them one by one. Do not allow your heart to worry, except for the right things. For the plans of God for your life, for the things God wants you to do with your life, for those He wants you to love and cherish, for His assignment for your life; for the right things; for those He wants you to make happy, for those He wants you to save and bring into His kingdom, for the end time Church.
Yes, worry about the right things. Do not worry about the wrong things. God wants you and I to worry about the right things. Our father Paul, spent his days worrying about the right things. He went through hell, and in his account, he said;
“ in weariness and toil, in sleeplessness often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness — besides the other things, what comes upon me daily: my deep concern for all the churches. Who is weak, and I am not weak? Who is made to stumble, and I do not burn with indignation?” 2 Corinthians 11:27-29 NKJV
If you look at our father here, he was not worried about the weariness, the toiling, the sleeplessness, the hunger, the thirst, the fasting, the cold, or nakedness. He knew that he could not change those things because they are characteristic and rigors of a genuine apostolic ministry. They were the wrong things to worry about.
HE DECIDED NOT TO WORRY ABOUT THE WRONG THINGS.
He decided to worry about the right things, the Church. Those who were made to stumble by false teachings like what we hear today were his worry; the ministries and false apostles, prophets, charlatans, and deceitful workers in God’s vineyards, were his worry.
The weak, the deceived, and the derailed were his worry.
He worried about matters of His apostolic assignment. He worried about the church. As a result, his life was filled with heavenly power, grace, and spirit. His life teaches that if we worry about the right things, they will fill our lives with life; it will grant us wisdom, give us momentum, strength, direction, light and understanding, discernment, and all that matters.
Worrying about the right things will promote discipline and good decision. It will kindle the fire of God upon your life and fill your heart with a righteous burden for the things you are worried about. It will help you to succeed and preserve your progress.
We cannot actually count the number of lives worry for the wrong things has taken away from the earth. We should not make ourselves part of the statistics. Jesus spent an entire teaching session on worrying for the wrong things because of how cruel and destructive it can be. He never supported worrying for anything earthly in that teaching.
He taught that we set our hearts on His kingdom, and righteousness, not on our earthly needs. I counsel that we spend this month doing just one thing – counting our blessings and worrying about the right things.
Counting our blessing and worrying about the right things, will keep our hearts away from the realms of worrying for the wrong ones, and plug it to the realm of miracles, signs, and wonders. Our devotional text says,
“One thing I have desired of the Lord, that will I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to inquire in His temple.” Psalm 27:4 NKJV
This scripture tells us what the Psalmist worried about in his own days. He worried about the presence of the LORD, about beholding the beauty of the LORD, and enquiring at His temple. What a beautiful thing for you and I to make part of the right things to be worried about?
Additionally, it teaches that those who spend their days around one significant thing that they must be doing, will never live accursed lives. The significant thing you and I can spend this month doing is this, we can spend it counting our blessing and worrying about the right things like our father Paul did.
It is a new month, and God has set the standard for us! It is my prayer that we embrace it. Things are going to happen that will require that you and I raise this standard against them; the standard of counting our blessings and not worrying about the things we should not be worrying about.
LET THIS SCRIPTURE BE AN ADDITIONAL MEDITATION FOR THE DAY (OR MONTH)
“Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing?
Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?
Which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature? “So why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; and yet I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.
Now if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? “Therefore, do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’
For after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.
Therefore, do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.” Matthew 6:25-34 NKJV