The Blessing of His Riches

Last month I remember reading in the news about the discovery of a rare blue diamond in a mine in South Africa. It was the size of an acorn and was worth millions of dollars.  Previously, other rare diamonds had been found in that same mine which were also very valuable.  
I am sure the company that owes the mine is very pleased to have found such riches.

Many people would love to have found such monetary wealth, however, as we have often seen, money and/or material possessions are not something that automatically brings happiness, for many people with such wealth are not happy.
Money is necessary in this life to purchase the things we need, however, many people who “have it all”, money and material wise, often say their life is empty or unfulfilled. 
So what good are riches if they don’t bring happiness ? 

There are riches that do offer happiness. 
They are God’s spiritual blessings in Christ.
As believers, we have many riches in Christ, in fact, scripture tells us that we have “exceeding riches” ! (Ephesians 2:7)
Riches are not just defined as monetary, they can be large amounts of possessions, but not necessarily material possessions.
Riches are also good things that are available to use.  Scripture tells us that “every good and perfect gift comes from abpve” (James 1:17)
Therefore, believers have been given many good and perfect gifts, treasures and riches from God, our heavenly Father.
Some of them are the redemption we have through Christ’s shed blood, the forgiveness of sins, the riches of God’s grace and mercy. 
They are the blessings of God’s kindness and favor towards us, the peace we have in Christ, and the wisdom, power, and might of the Holy Spirit who dwells within us.

God has richly blessed us everything we need daily to live successfully in this world.  We are rich in Him.  We need nothing more.

So let’s think upon this and stop looking to the world or our flesh for our supply.  Let’s begin using the riches God has provided us with. Let’s begin digging deep in His word where we will find golden nuggets of truth that will be even more valuable than any blue diamond ever could be. Let’s walk in the many blessings we have been given and we will soon discover how rich we really are!

The Blessing of Abundance!

Christmas Village 2011

My three grand-children were visiting for the weekend and even though it was still two weeks before Thanksgiving, we decided it would be a good time for all of us to set up our Christmas Village.  It was early, but since we were all together, the Christmas spirit and excitement was in the air to get “The Village” set up.  

For the past 12 years,  usually the day after Thanksgiving, I and the grand-kids have set up our Christmas Village.  When the tradition started my youngest grand-son was 4 and the the Village, like him, was pretty small.  Each year we would add one or two new things to our Village and so it has greatly grown over the years.  What started out as a tiny village, this year seems to have become a mighty metropolis!  And, as the Village has grown, so have the grand-children.  However, each still wants to have a part in “setting up the Village”.  This year as the boxes were brought out from the closet, my grand-son asked what was new and I replied that I had only purchased one small item as an addition, since the Village was really too big now and I wasn’t sure there would be room to fit it all in my small apartment. I announced that we had an Abundance of houses and people!    We had a “more than enough” Village !  

As Believers we have been blessed with Abundance.  God has given us “more than enough” blessings to use in our daily lives.  

The dictionary defines Abundance as: an extremely plentiful or over sufficient quantity or supply or overflowing fullness
To me that simply means “more than enough”.  God has blessed me, and all believers, with “more than enough”.
We have an infinite daily supply of all that is needed to succeed. We just need to know what we have been blessed with and then how to use it in our lives.

Think about what you feel you need to succeed in your daily life.  I would say I often need Strength, Wisdom and Power, coupled with Boldness, Confidence, Hope and Favor.
That’s just a few things I can think of off the top of my head and I have often prayed that God would give these things to me.  

However, I have come to realize that the book of Ephesians tells me that when I believed and received Jesus as my Savior, I received all those things and more.
  Ephesians 1:3 says I was blessed “exceedingly abundantly” beyond all that I could ask or think.  

So now, each day whatever my need might be I just thank God that He has already given me more than enough to handle it, then I ask Him to bring it into being through His Holy Spirit Who dwells within me.
 Strength?  I am abundantly supplied.  Wisdom?  I have all I will ever need.  Power?  God’s Power, the Holy Spirit, dwells within me.  Boldness?  Confidence?  I have an over sufficient quantity.  Hope?  I have more than enough.  Favor?  I am blessed to overflowing.    These are but a few of the Blessings believers receive in Christ.

Just as the Christmas Village keeps growing each year, because my grand-son and I want to add just one more new thing to it,  so does our Abundance in Christ.  We have a never ending supply of blessings we can use everyday, we just need to decide what we need for the day and the best place to put it into action.  

So let’s begin each day by thanking God for blessing us exceedingly abundantly with everything we need to succeed and then ask Him to manifest whatever we need to walk in that day.
I think we will be amazed at the change we will begin to see in our lives as we walk daily in  the Blessing of  Abundance!