{"id":1285,"date":"2011-03-18T21:33:08","date_gmt":"2011-03-19T02:33:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sourceministries.net\/go\/?p=1285"},"modified":"2023-11-05T18:20:37","modified_gmt":"2023-11-05T23:20:37","slug":"what-a-blessing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sourceministries.net\/go\/2011\/03\/what-a-blessing\/","title":{"rendered":"What a Blessing"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt; text-align: left;\"><strong><a onclick=\"javascript:pageTracker._trackPageview('\/outgoing\/www.sourceministries.net\/go\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/03\/th-1.jpg');\"  href=\"http:\/\/www.sourceministries.net\/go\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/03\/th-1.jpg\" rel=\"lightbox[1285]\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-2192\" src=\"http:\/\/www.sourceministries.net\/go\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/03\/th-1-261x300.jpg\" alt=\"th-1\" width=\"202\" height=\"232\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.sourceministries.net\/go\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/03\/th-1-261x300.jpg 261w, https:\/\/www.sourceministries.net\/go\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/03\/th-1.jpg 417w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 202px) 100vw, 202px\" \/><\/a>Dr. Lewis Gregory<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt; text-align: left;\"><strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-top: 0pt; text-align: left;\">\u201cOh, if only God would bless me!\u201d And so we pray, \u201cGod bless me . . . with wisdom, with patience, in this decision, in my job, as I teach . . .\u201d and the list goes on. Yet, with all our sincere seeking and praying, we miss the blessing. Why?<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-top: 0pt; text-align: left;\">One day as I was frantically searching through the house, my wife asked, \u201cWhat are you looking for?\u201d \u201cMy keys.\u201d \u201cWhat is that in your hand?\u201d Much to my amazement, I discovered I had picked up the keys without realizing it.<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-top: 0pt; text-align: left;\">What is that in your hand? Just consider what God has given you in Christ. \u201cBlessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ\u201d (Ephesians 1:3). It states that God has already blessed us with all the blessings. He has blessed us, past tense. But what have we been blessed with? Everything! We have been blessed with THE BLESSING of Christ Himself. And because we have Christ, we have all the spiritual blessings of heaven. Through Christ, all God&#8217;s resources are at our disposal.<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt; text-align: left;\">Therefore, you are blessed! \u201cKnowing that you are thereunto called, that you might inherit a blessing\u201d (1 Peter 3:9). The blessing is your inheritance. Because you have THE BLESSING\u2014Jesus Christ the Lord\u2014you can now receive God&#8217;s blessings. The blessings come to you through Christ, and are received by faith (Galatians 3:14). They are yours for the taking. Simply accept, by faith, God\u2019s bountiful provisions for your new life in Christ. So go ahead, possess your possessions!<\/p>\n<p>Why? It is certainly not to consume them upon your own lusts. God has blessed you, so that you might be able to render a blessing. What God told Abraham applies to you as well. \u201cI will bless you and you will be a blessing\u201d (Genesis 12:2). Yes, God has abundantly blessed you in Christ, so of course, He wants you to enjoy all of His marvelous blessings. God has given you all things richly to enjoy. (1 Timothy 6:17) However, that doesn&#8217;t mean you are to hoard them. He also wants you to be a blessing to others!<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-top: 0pt; text-align: left;\">Therefore, be thankful to God for all your blessings both great and small. You are blessed! So be who you are . . . a blessing!<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-top: 0pt; text-align: left;\">Listen: You are Blessed <a onclick=\"javascript:pageTracker._trackPageview('\/outgoing\/www.sourceministries.net\/go\/2011\/10\/you-are-blessed\/');\"  href=\"http:\/\/www.sourceministries.net\/go\/2011\/10\/you-are-blessed\/\">http:\/\/www.sourceministries.net\/go\/2011\/10\/you-are-blessed\/<\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">Copyright\u00a91983 Dr. Lewis Gregory<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Dr. Lewis Gregory \u00a0 \u201cOh, if only God would bless me!\u201d And so we pray, \u201cGod bless me . . . with wisdom, with patience, in this decision, in my job, as I teach . . .\u201d and the list goes on. Yet, with all our sincere seeking and praying, we miss the blessing. Why? [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":17,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40,41,5,51],"tags":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sourceministries.net\/go\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1285"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sourceministries.net\/go\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sourceministries.net\/go\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sourceministries.net\/go\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/17"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sourceministries.net\/go\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1285"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.sourceministries.net\/go\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1285\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4597,"href":"https:\/\/www.sourceministries.net\/go\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1285\/revisions\/4597"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sourceministries.net\/go\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1285"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sourceministries.net\/go\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1285"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sourceministries.net\/go\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1285"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}