We Are So Blessed

Scripture:
"Three times a year all your men must appear before the Lord your God at the place he will choose: at the Feast of Unleavened Bread, the Feast of Weeks and the Feast of Tabernacles. No man should appear before the Lord empty-handed: Each of you must bring a gift in proportion to the way the Lord your God has blessed you. " (Deuteronomy 16:16-17)

I have a close friend who had not had any work for a while now and has been studying to get his insurance license. While he was doing this he put name at the end of a list of 30 truck drivers who haul cement to building locations. Now we all know how tough the housing market is right now so he was only getting a day or two of work each month and, in addition, he failed the insurance test two previous times. He is a brother who loves the Lord and he has a wife and three daughters.

About 2 months ago I coveted to pray for him and his family every day that God would give him more work to care for his family, help him pass the insurance test, bring him abundant prosperity, protect him from the creditors and give peace to his wife and his three girls.

At first things seemed to get worse before they got better. They were 3 months behind in their car payments with threats of repossession with only 5 months left on the loan. As we prayed each day, my friend started to get more days of work for a few half days, then a couple of days a week, then days of 10.5 hours. At the same time, he was studying for his test. He studied hard after work and on weekends and his eldest daughter even drilled him with sample test questions.

Well less then an hour ago I got this text message from him, "PASSED IN one HoUR PRAisE GOd PrAISE GOD". As you can imagine I rejoiced with him saying "HALLELUJAH" followed by "The Lord is your strength and your deliverer, the very help in the time of your needs. Then I said, "I am happy for you. Now God will reign on you and with your first fruits you must thank him. Pray for His will in your obedience."

In Deutoronomy 16, verse 17 it says, "No man should appear before the Lord empty-handed: Each of you must bring a gift in proportion to the way the Lord your God has blessed you." At first this might seem easy enough because when we are blessed we usually feel a "relief " or a burden lifted, however, all to quickly we begin to think of all the ways this "blessing" should be "adminstered" because we have so much "need". Then before we realize it, the blessing is gone, there is a need again and we missed the opportunity to thank God in a tangible way.

Prayer:
Dear Lord, thank you so much for hearing our prayers and meeting our needs. Continually remind us to express our gratitude in real and tangible ways and glorify your Son in our giving. In Jesus Name, Amen