Be Blessed!

Daily Reading: 2 Corinthians 12-13

Scripture Focus: The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all. (2 Corinthians 13.14)

Devotional Thought: Consider this threefold benediction for today and every day:

·       We are blessed through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ.  What is grace?  It is the unmerited favor of God.  Without any reason other than his love, God sent his Son Jesus Christ to die on the cross for our sins.  We could not earn that grace.  We could not work for it.  God freely gave his Son so that we might be redeemed from the awful grip of sin.  Nothing else portrays the grace of God better than the Son of God.

·       We are blessed by the love of God.  The Bible says, “God is love” (1 John 4.8).  What a glorious, yet simple truth!  Of all the attributes of God – his power, his holiness, his eternity, his wisdom, his justice – it is his love that defines him most completely.  God is powerful, yes.  God is holy.  God is eternal and wise and just.  But, these are adjectives used to describe God.  The noun that defines God is love.  When you feel as though no one loves you, God does. 

·       We are blessed in the fellowship of the Holy Spirit.  It is not only God’s plan to save us and to love us, it is his plan to have a relationship with us.  He desires that we know him personally, receive his love, and love him in return. So, “God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us” (Romans 5.5).  Our God of love has come in the Holy Spirit in order to be with us.  Don’t miss out on this fellowship with the Creator of the universe through the presence of his Holy Spirit in you.

Prayer: “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all!”  Amen.

Psalm of the Day: Psalm 116.15-19

15 Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints.

16 O Lord, I am your servant; I am your servant, the son of your maidservant. You have loosed my bonds.

17 I will offer to you the sacrifice of thanksgiving and call on the name of the Lord.

18 I will pay my vows to the Lord in the presence of all his people,

19 in the courts of the house of the Lord, in your midst, O Jerusalem. Praise the Lord!