Bless the LORD and Be Blessed

If you are a part of the Agape Ladies’ Bible study on Sunday evenings, you will hear this verse echoing what we’ve been learning in Ephesians 1. Paul begins his letter to the saints in Ephesus with some high praise to God. He begins by saying, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,” and then goes into many reasons God should be praised for his glorious grace.

When we ponder in our hearts the work of Christ, it doesn’t take long for our hearts to overflow with praise. So, how do we bless the Lord at all times? We must be in his word! We have to be moved by his wondrous works. Because of our forgetfulness, we must be constantly reminded and dependent on his feeding us spiritual food. We are guaranteed to be stagnant and malnourished if we aren’t being fed spiritually with the living and active word of God.

I am convinced that one of the many reasons we do not go to God in his word is because of our unbelief. We don’t believe God will meet us there. We don’t believe if we spend time with him, everything else on our “to do list” will get done. We don’t believe we will take anything away from our time there. BUT, God is faithful. If we come to Scripture expecting to learn of Christ, we will be blessed. God doesn’t waste our time.

We are an impatient people and want to see transformation immediately. We want to be blessed immediately. It is hard to think of our time in his word as a deposit into an account that we will withdraw later and it be a blessing to us. But that is exactly what it is. God’s word is renewing. It is transforming. And you can trust that when you meet him there, you will experience those things whether it be now or later.

Being reminded of what God has done in Christ helps us to transform our boasting in self to boasting in the Lord. The “humble” or “poor in spirit” know their need for God. They yearn for his presence and salvation. And, it is a tiny glimpse of what we will experience in heaven as the saints worship the majesty of God here on earth. So let us magnify the Lord today! Let us exalt his name together! Let us bless the Lord and be blessed ourselves!