“You will be blessed in the city and blessed in the country.. You will be blessed when you come in and when you go out” - Deuteronomy 28: 3-6 (NIV).
Almost everyone these days has seen or heard of someone engaging in sports betting. This is a business model where participants are betting on the outcome of particular sports teams to win money based on their predictions.
Sports betting like all others forms of gambling has a few who will win to make the business believable. But the majority end up losing, hence providing a handsome profit to the owners. There are hundreds of gamblers who have ended up in complete ruin as their betting did not yield much fruit.
For believers our God has thrown us a wager but with certain success. Here in our verse today we see the promises of God in our lives when we obey His commands. “The Lord will open the heavens, the storehouse of the bounty, to send rain on your land in season and to bless all the work of your hands. You will lend to many nations but borrow from none. The Lord will make you the head and not the tail. If you pay attention to the command of the Lord your God I give you this day and carefully follow them, you will always be at the top and never at the bottom” (Deuteronomy 28: 12-13).
Today, the choice is clearly in our hands. Any of us could decide to walk down to a booth and bet his future away. Or one could go by the precepts of a God who clearly wishes us success. “Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, so that they may be food in my house and test me in this, “says the Lord of hosts, “if I will not open for you the windows of heaven and pour out for you a blessing until it overflows” (Malachi 3:10).
Prayer for today: Lord Father Almighty God of creation, as is your word today I pray to obey it in its fullness, that I may enjoy the blessings of knowing and serving you!
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08/05/2024 - 09/05/2024 All day“Thanks be to God for His indescribable gift!” (2 Corinthians 9:15)
The culture of sharing gifts runs through scriptures and is at the heart of the Gospel. Upon realizing that Jesus Christ had been born the three wise main did not just go empty handed. “On coming to the house, they saw the child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him. Then they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh” (Mathew 2:11).
When Jacob decided to return to his country, he went with gifts to soften the heart of his twin brother Esau, whom he had left maddened at him for various wrongs. “Then he selected these gifts from his possessions to present to his brother, Esau: 200 female goats, 20 male goats, 200 ewes, 20 rams, 30 female camels with their young, 40 cows, 10 bulls, 20 female donkeys, and 10 male donkeys” ( Genesis 32: 13-15). The reason was, Jacob thought, “I will try to appease him by sending gifts ahead of me. When I see him in person, perhaps he will be friendly to me.” So the gifts were sent on ahead, while Jacob himself spent that night in the camp” (vv 2—21).
Esau was already a wealthy man and had no need of the gifts presented. But Jacob pleaded with him. “Please take this gift I have brought you, for God has been very gracious to me. I have more than enough.” And because Jacob insisted, Esau finally accepted the gift” (Genesis 33: 11). This symbol of good touched Esau, brightened his heart, burying the old acrimonious relation.
Taking after these two instances believers should be in the habit of sharing gifts. We should visit each other not empty handed but like the wise men with gifts, not so much that those we are gifting are lacking, but as a way of blessing them. Proverbs 11:25-26, says, “Whoever brings blessing will be enriched, and one who waters will himself be watered.”
Most importantly we bless each other with gifts because we have received the most important gift there is in life, the gift of salvation. “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16).
Prayer for today: Lord Father God of Abraham, maker of heaven and earth, today I thank you for the most precious gift of all that you gave me of eternal life through faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, and so I pray that I may not hesitate to share this gift and bless those with as much whom you enable me to meet, this I pray in Jesus’ name.
