A Blessed Person!

07.06.15

Are you a learner? A curious person?

That's what Solomon was. He loved getting new information. When God offered to bless him in any way he wanted, Solomon asked for greater wisdom.

The Bible tells us that instruction is good, and it is especially good when it is filtered through trust in the Lord. Trust in God, with a steady flow of instruction, will lead to a healthier faith in God. "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge," Solomon stated as he began to write the book of Proverbs (1:7).

That's why we constantly encourage people to keep reading their Bibles and be instructed in the truths of the Scriptures. Solomon also wrote, "Whoever gives heed to instruction prospers, and blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord" (Proverbs 16:20, NIV).

Intriguingly, many years later, the apostle Paul finds this Proverbs passage confirmed by his own experience. He too was a curious man -- loving to learn.

As a Pharisee who did not believe in Jesus, he put his knowledge to work persecuting Christ-followers. But once Paul had been confronted by Jesus, and became a Christ-follower himself, he put his knowledge to work for a new purpose: sharing Christ with his fellow Jews, and especially with Gentiles.

As a result of this, persecution began to come his way.

But through it all, Paul feels blessed. He has had God's help all along. And despite what might befall him, he is absolutely confident that he has devoted his life to the right purpose.

I hope for you that your life is filled with the same sense of purpose as Paul's. Through faith in Jesus Christ, you are a blessed person. Because to be a person who blesses others is to be a blessed person yourself!

"First to those in Damascus, then to those in Jerusalem and in all Judea, and then to the Gentiles, I preached that they should repent and turn to God and demonstrate their repentance by their deeds. That is why some Jews seized me in the temple courts and tried to kill me. But God has helped me to this very day; so I stand here and testify to small and great alike. I am saying nothing beyond what the prophets and Moses said would happen—that the Messiah would suffer and, as the first to rise from the dead, would bring the message of light to his own people and to the Gentiles" (Acts 26:20-23, NIV).

Our Bible reading for Tuesday, July 7, is 2 Kings 14:23 - 15:38, Acts 25:23 - 26:23 and Proverbs 16:18-27.

Father, thank you for rescuing me from the dominion of darkness, and bringing me into the kingdom of the Son you love. Help me to devote my life to bringing others into that same kingdom, and to be blessed by blessing others.

Header image based on "Colossians 1:13" by Tito and Eva Marie Balangue, CC By 2.0