“Our Daily Bread”   

http://odb.org/2012/09/11/imitate-the-good/

The Daily Devotions of Greg Laurie                                  

http://www.harvest.org/devotional/daily-devotions/home.ht

1 Chronicles 4:10… And Jabez called on the God of Israel saying, “Oh, that You would bless me indeed, and enlarge my territory, that Your hand would be with me, and that You would keep me from evil, that I may not cause pain!” So God granted him what he requested.  (NKJV)

Yesterday, I wrote about the rewards God gives to His children, as mentioned in…Hebrews 11:6… Go to this link, and scroll down 1 day, if your interested…   www.godsmanforever.wordpress.com    …I made mention that we should never take scripture out of context, and hang our hats on it, so to speak… I referenced… Psalm 37:3-4… Trust in the Lord, and do good; Dwell in the land, and feed on His faithfulness. ⁴ Delight yourself also in the Lord, And He shall give you the desires of your heart.  (NKJV)

God will only give us what is in His will for our lives… 1 John 5:14… Now this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us.  (NKJV)

I read the opening scripture this morning, and was reminded about how complete this obscure little prayer by a man named Jabez can really be; if it is prayed in our own words, and with the right heart felt motives…  God wants His children to come to Him with prayer in the good times as well as in our time of need… Prayer for me, is the very first thing I try to remember to do in the morning, right after I open my eyes…

I wrote yesterday, that I believed the rewards God wants to give those who diligently seek Him, were the blessings of absolute peace, joy, and hope for the future… Jabez didn’t put any restrictions on the blessings he was praying for… This leaves it entirely up to God, who is only going to give us what He wills for our lives…  How many times have you prayed to win the multi-million dollar lottery; and then promised the Lord that if you won, you were going to do this or that with the money ??

We should NEVER  barter with the Lord… And we should never pray for things just because we lust after them… The apostle James tells us this, in…James 4:2-3… You lust and do not have. You murder and covet and cannot obtain. You fight and war. Yet you do not have because you do not ask. ³ You ask and do not receive, because you ask amiss, that you may spend it on your pleasures.  (NKJV)

By praying to the Lord to bless you with everything in His will for you…you are not leaving anything on God’s table… But note this…“that Your hand would be with me”…  For God’s hand to be with us, we have to be walking with Him… This means all of our sins must be confessed and repented of, to be found righteous in God’s eyes… The apostle John tells us this, in…1 John 1:9… If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.  (NKJV)

There are 3 other components to this opening scripture, which I will save for another day…that round out this little prayer… The key to today’s writing, is that we must be walking with the Lord to expect Him to bless us…and if we pray for His will for our lives, and then try to follow God’s will…He will be free to bless us His way…

Heavenly Father, on this day known as 9/11, that many of us will never forget…I pray for special blessings of comfort and peace for all of the families that lost loved ones, 11 years ago today… It’s hard to understand why You allow these kind of tragic events to happen; but we should remember that Your ways are not our ways (Isaiah 55:8-9)… Lord, urge all of us to learn more about You, through reading Your Word… Help us to desire the wisdom and the knowledge You want all of us to benefit from… I pray for this spiritual wisdom and for Your special blessings, in Jesus’ most precious name and for His sake…Amen…

written by bruce r mills