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Today is Monday April 19, 2010 and we are reading through the Bible in a year. Today's message comes from the reading of the Book of II Samuel, chapters 21-22. If you would like to read the chapters along with us here online you can Click Here to read them or copy & paste this URL onto your browser: http://www.readytofollow.com/bible-april-19

Title: Bible Study: When Are My Blessings Coming?
True Christians have committed to living their lives for Christ, that is they try to be more like Him, they are faithful, read their Bibles on a regular basis, pray all the time, come to every church service, and even go out and tell neighbors how they too can know Christ. No matter how much like Christ we try to be, there are times in our lives where it seems that we are in a famine, constantly seeking answers from God and not getting any. Yet we remain faithful, not cursing God, but always wondering, when are my blessings coming. Now, there may be some hidden sin in our lives that needs to be reconciled with God before He starts pouring out the blessings, but it may not be anything that we have done at all. Often, it is not something we did that hinder God from giving blessings, it is something someone else has done.

For three years there was a famine in the land of Israel, finally David inquired of the Lord to see why this was happening. “Then there was a famine in the days of David three years, year after year; and David enquired of the LORD. And the LORD answered, It is for Saul, and for his bloody house, because he slew the Gibeonites. And the king called the Gibeonites, and said unto them; (now the Gibeonites were not of the children of Israel, but of the remnant of the Amorites; and the children of Israel had sworn unto them: and Saul sought to slay them in his zeal to the children of Israel and Judah.) Wherefore David said unto the Gibeonites, What shall I do for you? and wherewith shall I make the atonement, that ye may bless the inheritance of the LORD? And the Gibeonites said unto him, We will have no silver nor gold of Saul, nor of his house; neither for us shalt thou kill any man in Israel. And he said, What ye shall say, that will I do for you. And they answered the king, The man that consumed us, and that devised against us that we should be destroyed from remaining in any of the coasts of Israel, Let seven men of his sons be delivered unto us, and we will hang them up unto the LORD in Gibeah of Saul, whom the LORD did choose. And the king said, I will give them.” - II Samuel 21:1-6. David had no doubt that God had some reason for this famine. He believed that God would not afflict His people without having a reason for it. What happened was, Saul had violated the covenant that Israel had made with the Gibeonites four hundred years earlier. That treaty was still sacred because the covenant had been sworn to in the Name of God (See Joshua 9:3,15-19). The surviving Gibeonites did not ask David for silver or gold to compensate for the murder of loved ones or for the loss of their property, they asked permission to hang seven men who were descendants of Saul. David was responsible before God to deliver the seven men to the Gibeonites therefore he did as they asked. Sometimes doing the right thing might mean that one would have to turn someone in for committing a crime. It is important that we do not let people get away with things, pretending that something did not happen will cause problems for you and them. Remember what happened to Amnon and Absalom because David chose to ignore their crimes? One mistake that Christians make is that they do not ask God what is going on. God will not answer us unless we ask Him first. Jesus Said, “If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you.” - John 15:7. All who believe in Christ are one with Him, therefore He will answer us.

David teaches us to give praise to God in the midst of stressful times, regardless of our circumstances. David wrote a song of praise to God. All of chapter 22 is called David's song, which is identical to Psalm 18 and in it there is not one complaint, only praise to God through all of the circumstances he faced. “And David spake unto the LORD the words of this song in the day that the LORD had delivered him out of the hand of all his enemies, and out of the hand of Saul: And he said, The LORD is my rock, and my fortress, and my deliverer; The God of my rock; in him will I trust: he is my shield, and the horn of my salvation, my high tower, and my refuge, my saviour; thou savest me from violence. I will call on the LORD, who is worthy to be praised: so shall I be saved from mine enemies. When the waves of death compassed me, the floods of ungodly men made me afraid; The sorrows of hell compassed me about; the snares of death prevented me; In my distress I called upon the LORD, and cried to my God: and he did hear my voice out of his temple, and my cry did enter into his ears. ” - II Samuel 22:1-7. God hears all whom have received His blessed Son, Jesus Christ as their Savior.

So, are you asking God, “When are my blessings coming?” It is time to take a serious look at what you are doing in your life. Is it simply something you do not need or are not ready for? Is there some secret sin that you think you are hiding? Is it a person you hang our with? Is it a job? Is it a spouse or ex spouse? Or is it that you have lost your faith in God? Those who really have no faith in God are not fruitful and will not grow as a true Christian. Jesus describes Christians who are not fruitful as seeds that were planted in stony ground. “But he that received the seed into stony places, the same is he that heareth the word, and anon with joy receiveth it; Yet hath he not root in himself, but dureth for a while: for when tribulation or persecution ariseth because of the word, by and by he is offended.” - Matthew 13:20,21. True Christians will remain faithful to God and keep going no matter what circumstances they are facing. Ask God to search your heart and show you anything that is hindering you from receiving your blessings. There was a time in my life when I was engaged to a man in prison, just this morning I thought to myself all the times God had tried to keep me away from him, but did not listen to Him back then. I broke things off with him, but did not handle it in the right way. This man became so angry with me that he was vindictive, I did not want to fight so I just let him say what he wanted and moved on with my life. I started doing more for God, teaching, working at the church, online missions, staying in the Word of God, got rid of all the worldly things in my life, but it seemed that nothing was changing. I asked God what was going on and he told me that I needed to reconcile with my ex, not get back together with him, but tell him that I was sorry for hurting him and I forgive him for what he had done. The very next day things started to turn around for me and the blessings started pouring in. You see, God wants to bless us, but we must let go of things in our lives that are hindering us before we receive them. Want your blessings to come? Ask God what you need to do to receive them.

Enjoy the rest of your day/night and an awesome week.
God Bless You, I am praying for you,
Christina

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