Blessing

New Year Hope

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For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened. Luke 11:10 NIV

As we approach New Year, I confess that over the last twelve months, most of what I hoped for, didn’t happen the way I planned, many of my best efforts turned out to be fruitless and looking ahead, I have no idea what will happen next. There is just so much I don’t know, but I do know that God is not the God of hopelessness. But in the middle of our daily battles, He challenges our faith, tests our resolve and then surprises us with grace. Here in our home, our responsibilities concerning our friend Betty who came to live with us after the hurricane in October of ’24 have grown considerably as her dementia has increased and after a minor stroke just after Thanksgiving. Nancy and I struggle along with the help and prayers of friends and several health aides who stop by throughout the week. Each day feels like slogging through a muddy field, but we have hope, though our plans for the coming year are all pretty much on hold. We have a God Who has promised to never leave or forsake, who assures us that in the valleys He will walk with us…with me…with my wife and with our friend Betty. He will keep our family. He will provide answers, and He will carry us in His arms like a shepherd! (Isaiah 40:11) What an amazing hope we have!

Too often when we read today’s verse, we fail to follow through on Luke’s fuller explanation in verses 11-14. Rather than stopping at the open door, Jesus teaches us that no father will give hurtful or dangerous gifts to his children when they ask for things like bread, a fish or an egg. Then He ends with the thought that our Heavenly Father will also give us good things: and the best of all gifts is Himself. He gives His Holy Spirit, to those who ask. What more valuable gift could we possess, who better to guide, what greater hope can we have than the Holy Spirit to lead us into tomorrow? Though it will be a New Year for us, for our Father in Heaven who stands outside of time, every moment is already written in His book. Now I ask that God will bless and keep you as He leads, protects, provides and encourages by His unfailing love and eternal grace through every one of the days ahead!

What Is Your Name?

/ pastorpete51 / 2 Comments 
Then he said, “Let me go, for the day has broken.” But Jacob said, “I will not let you go unless you bless me.”  And he said to him, “What is your name?” And he said, “Jacob.”  Genesis 32:26-27 ESV

All Jacob’s life he had struggled for blessings. Jacob had tricked Esau, his older brother into selling him the right of the first born (Quite a significant financial advantage in his day). Later when their father had decided to give Esau the family blessing, Jacob ran in ahead of Esau and fooled his blind father into giving him that blessing instead. When news of Jacob’s deceit got to Esau there was murder in his heart and Jacob fled to his mother’s family. So, instead of getting his father’s blessings he spent 20 years working for his uncle Laban. In today’s verse, Jacob was finally and totally alone in his struggle with God’s angel.

By this time, he was entirely out of strength and yet he hung on to his attacker, refusing to let him go. Jacob had gotten so much along the way. He was rich; he had married the girl of his dreams and had many sons and daughters. Jacob had all these accomplishments, but he feared his brother Esau. He had so much stuff and yet so little of God’s blessing of peace. As Jacob continued to struggle the angel finally agrees to bless him, but not as Jacob had imagined. Instead of giving him more things, the angel changed Jacob’s name.

 “Your name shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel, for you have striven with God and with men, and have prevailed.”  Genesis 32:28 

What a strange victory God had planned for Jacob, and He has that same strange and yet wonderful victory available for you and me. Whenever we truly meet with God, we come away with a new name, a new future and a new hope. When we choose a name, that name can be changed. But when God chooses our name, it sticks forever. The name God offers to give us is our greatest blessing, because it is written down in Heaven. It is the name that Jesus calls us when we find him by faith and refuse to let go! What is your name?

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God Still Answers Prayer

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May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all. 2 Corinthians 13:14

When you think about prayer; have you ever stopped to consider all the prayers of the Bible that God is still answering? Maybe it would help to think about them somewhat like going out to eat or stopping at the grocery store to buy milk and eggs. The first thing that happens whenever we start out in the car is that my wife begins rummaging through her purse for coupons. Somehow, whether we are going to Olive Garden, Pizza Hut or Walmart she finds one that we can use, then she looks to see if the date is still valid. Prayers in the Bible are somewhat like those coupons. We only get to take advantage of them if we ask to redeem them and the good news for us is that there is no expiration date!

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This morning as I was reading Paul’s prayer of blessing for the Corinthian church I stopped and went back over the words realizing that in my own life I desperately need the grace, love and fellowship that Paul asked for. These blessings are much more than just words on a page or the sound waves generated by our pastor as he prays them over us at the end of a Sunday service. This 2,000 year old prayer is a valid coupon, redeemable in our prayer closet to whoever presents it by faith to God.

God still wants you and I to experience the Grace of Jesus Christ every day. The love of God is more than a gift given long ago; it is valid and waiting for us to experience it this morning. And just as they say on television; “But wait there’s more!” remember that in these days of stress, fear and change; the Fellowship of the Holy Spirit is a gift that God longs to put into our hearts if we will only ask.

So why not put aside a moment right now as you are reading and ask God for:

Grace for every weakness, sin and sorrow

Love for all people you will meet in every place and hour

Fellowship In every conflict, disappointment or disaster

These are God’s precious promises; still active in the words of this ancient prayer. They never die but they wait on our faith to remember and believe!