365 Blessings- February 10

My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anybody does sin, we have one who speaks to the Father in our defense - Jesus Christ, the Righteous One. (1 John 2:1)

What a blessing! You and me, when we sin, we have one who speaks to the Father in our defense - Jesus Christ, the Righteous One.
And sin comes so easily. Maybe not in deed, but in thought and in speech it is rampant in the lives of so many believer's. No wonder the Lord told Cain the all too familiar phrase- "If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must master it." (Genesis 4:7)

Why does sin crouch at our door? Why does it desire to have us?
Simply because satan is jealous and wants to steal the fellowship that we have with God and wants sin to be a stumbling block in our lives from receiving God's blessings.

But as God advised Cain--You must master sin. What happened though was the other way around--sin mastered Cain and he murdered his brother Abel.

Let us not let sin master us. The Bible advises us thus:
Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. (Hebrews 12:1)

Sin can entangle us like a creeper entangles a good plant, but we must cry out to God to save us from such sins that entangles us. We have one who speaks to the Father in our defense - Jesus Christ, the Righteous One.
Let us abide in him so that the following maybe fulfilled in our lives too.
And now, dear children, continue in him, so that when he appears we may be confident and unashamed before him at his coming. (1 John 2:28)

Confident and unashamed... Hope we can be found in such a state.

365 Blessings- February 9

See, I am sending an angel ahead of you to guard you along the way and to bring you to the place I have prepared. (Exodus 23:20)

A promise given to the Israelites as they traveled towards Canaan; the land of promise. God was sending his angel ahead of the traveling Israelites to fight for them and protect them from their enemies, but there were instructions for them concerning the angel:
Pay attention to him and listen to what he says. Do not rebel against him; he will not forgive your rebellion, since my Name is in him. If you listen carefully to what he says and do all that I say, I will be an enemy to your enemies and will oppose those who oppose you. (Exodus 23:21, 22)

"Pay attention, listen carefully to the angel and do all that God said” were the instructions. That was the Old Testament.

For us, as believers, God has given us his Holy Spirit to guide us till we enter eternity in heaven. The Counselor, the Holy Spirit, of whom Jesus said, 

But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you. (John 14:26) 

But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come. He will bring glory to me by taking from what is mine and making it known to you. All that belongs to the Father is mine. That is why I said the Spirit will take from what is mine and make it known to you. (John 16:13-15)

We have to pay attention and listen carefully to the Holy Spirit and obey the Word of God as detailed in the New Testament. The Holy Spirit will teach us all things through the Word and he will remind us of everything that Jesus said and he will guide us into all truth. The Holy Spirit will guard us and guide us to the place that God has prepared for us.
The question is: Are we willing to obey him?
If yes, then we can be sure that he will surely finish the work that God has begun in us.

365 Blessings- February 8

I will repay you for the years the locusts have eaten - the great locust and the young locust, the other locusts and the locust swarm - my great army that I sent among you. (Joel 2:25)

Joel's prophecy begins with the prophetic utterance of impending invasion of the land by different kinds of locusts destroying the produce of the land. It may also have indicated the invasions of the land by the Chaldeans.
"What the locust swarm has left the great locusts have eaten; what the great locusts have left the young locusts have eaten; what the young locusts have left other locusts have eaten." (Joel 1:4)
"The fields are ruined, the ground is dried up ; the grain is destroyed, the new wine is dried up, the oil fails." (Joel 1:10)

Then comes the summons from the Lord to the people of the land to fast and pray and repent of their sins.
'Even now,' declares the LORD, 'return to me with all your heart, with fasting and weeping and mourning.' Rend your heart and not your garments. Return to the LORD your God, for he is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love, and he relents from sending calamity. (Joel 2:12, 13)

And the promises for repenting and living a life pleasing to the Lord are detailed from verses 19- 27 of Ch. 2.
The verse that we have here as the title verse is a part of these, in which God promises to give back what they have lost due to the locust invasions.
'I will repay you for the years the locusts have eaten - the great locust and the young locust, the other locusts and the locust swarm - my great army that I sent among you. (Joel 2:25)

Whatever blessings you lost because of your rebellion and sin will also be returned by the Lord if you fast and pray and repent and live a life pleasing to God. He is a good God. He loves you. Live for him. He will restore you.

365 Blessings- February 7

Joseph had a dream, and when he told it to his brothers, they hated him all the more. He said to them, "Listen to this dream I had: We were binding sheaves of grain out in the field when suddenly my sheaf rose and stood upright, while your sheaves gathered around mine and bowed down to it." (Genesis 37:5-7)

What if Joseph had kept his dreams to himself? Wouldn't his brothers have hated him? Sometimes people hate children of God for no fault of theirs. Jealousy is one of the root causes of hatred. The Bible is replete with many such instances right from the creation of Adam & Eve. Satan was jealous of the blessings that were being bestowed by God upon Adam and Eve. Look at Cain; he was jealous and hated his brother Abel because God accepted Abel's offering and not his.

And the stories go on and on...but the difference is made by the promise. And what God promises he fulfills despite the jealousies and the hatreds.

Joseph's dreams were God given and many things happened against their fulfillment but God saw to it that in the fullness of time, his time, they attained fulfillment.

Regarding this the Psalmist says,

He called down famine on the land and destroyed all their supplies of food; and he sent a man before them - Joseph, sold as a slave. They bruised his feet with shackles, his neck was put in irons, till what he foretold came to pass, till the word of the LORD proved him true. The king sent and released him, the ruler of peoples set him free. He made him master of his household, ruler over all he possessed to instruct his princes as he pleased and teach his elders wisdom. (Psalm 105:16-22)

Regarding the promise to the Israelites, in the same psalm we read,

For he remembered his holy promise given to his servant Abraham. He brought out his people with rejoicing, his chosen ones with shouts of joy; he gave them the lands of the nations, and they fell heir to what others had toiled for - that they might keep his precepts and observe his laws. Praise the LORD. (Psalm 105:42-45)

Have you a promise given by God? And you are worried about all the hate that is coming against you. Remember Joesph and his dreams. Your's too will attain fulfillment in God's time.
As for now....Cast your cares on the LORD and he will sustain you; he will never let the righteous fall. (Psalm 55:22) 

365 Blessings- February 6

Then the LORD said to Moses, "Why are you crying out to me? Tell the Israelites to move on. Raise your staff and stretch out your hand over the sea to divide the water so that the Israelites can go through the sea on dry ground. (Exodus 14:15, 16)

Are you stuck at some place dear brother/sister in Christ? Stagnating in your spiritual life? The Lord says, "Move on!"
How long are you going to latch on to your family traditions and stagnate in your spiritual life?
What are the things that are hindering you from having a close walk with Jesus? Free yourself from those shackles and move on.

You have to reach the heavenly Canaan and there are so many obstacles. God told Moses, "Raise your staff and stretch out your hand over the sea to divide the water so that the Israelites can go through the sea on dry ground."

Piece of cake? No way! But that's the Lord for you. Stretching Moses' faith to the limits, just to see whether he would snap. Almost did snap a few times, yet here, his obedience to God's command made him and the Israelites see the unbelievable.

The Bible says,

Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and all that night the LORD drove the sea back with a strong east wind and turned it into dry land. The waters were divided, and the Israelites went through the sea on dry ground, with a wall of water on their right and on their left. (Exodus 14:22)
There's a way in the Red Sea or the monstrous problem that you are experiencing in your life, dear brother/sister in Christ. You may not be able to see the way but God can and he will open the way if you trust in his words and be obedient to him. Move on.