Craving for true blessedness!
Verse for Today: Tuesday, October 16, 2012
Genesis 32:26b – But Jacob replied, “I will not let You go unless You bless me.”
When we see the Lord face to face, we would realize how poor we are in spite of our material wealth. It is in His presence that our nothingness and utter inner poverty will be exposed. As we have a true encounter with the Lord, we would see our emptiness and our need for true blessings from the Lord. Our vision of our Lord will fill our hearts with His glory that we would have deep longing to be filled with Him rather than with the things of this world which will pass away. Jacob had such an encounter with the Lord one night at Jabbok when he was all alone, devoid of all that he had secured in life. There he saw his emptiness and worthlessness and wrestled in his soul with the Lord in faith. There Jacob reached a spiritual state where he was not willing to settle with anything less than true blessedness from the Lord which became the keen desire of his heart. Jacob realized that the Lord alone would impart true and lasting blessing which his heart craved for. He persisted in his encounter with the Lord with deep desire to be blessed and stayed put until he was truly blessed. The Lord responded by changing his name which portrayed what God expected him to be. There his physical strength was broken and made worthless. Jacob was devoid of his strong leg with which he escaped from his problems in the past. After receiving true blessing, with his last straw of physical strength withdrawn from him, Jacob was only able to walk by holding the hands of the Lord. There Jacob found that he had to walk by faith and no longer by sight. Jacob’s encounter with the Lord challenges us today to go to Him with a contrite heart full of genuine desire for true spiritual blessings from Him.
Dear reader, have you had a true encounter with the Lord when you were able to see your nothingness vis-à-vis the fullness of His glory? Have you gazed at His blessedness which is yours for asking and desiring? If you are genuine in your craving for true blessing from the Lord, you need to be with Him all alone with importunity, patience and persistence. You have to tarry with the Lord and confess your nothingness to Him and ask that you be filled with Him and nothing else of this world. But when you do that, you must be willing to receive whatever the Lord is pleased to give you and acknowledge it with gratitude. When the Lord thus blesses you truly, you will have the Lord and nothing else in this world. That is when you are able to claim Him as your Jehovah-Jireh who provides for all your spiritual, emotional and physical needs according to His riches in glory. When He is with you, fills you with Himself and promises to lead you, it would make you fully contended in all circumstances and situations. Such a life would fill your heart with praise and make you hold firmly on the Lord to walk forward. It was such a Jacob who became Israel and was even able to bless Pharaoh, the richest ruler of his time. Today you are challenged to desire and seek such a personal encounter with the Lord and be specially blessed in your relationship with Him. It will enable you to live a life of true faith and bless even those who falsely think that they are blessed in this world. Today it is your privilege to live by faith and be a blessing to all whose lives God helps you to touch.
1 Chronicles 4:10a – Jabez cried out to the God of Israel, “Oh, that You would bless me and enlarge my territory!
Thought for Today
True blessedness comes from the Lord when we encounter Him with a contrite heart in persistent prayer of importunity.
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