January 31, 2017

His Daily Benefits

A compilation

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“Blessed be the Lord, who daily loads us with benefits, even the God of our salvation.”—Psalm 68:19¹

God’s benefits are neither few nor light; they are copious. They aren’t intermittent or dispensed to his favorite children. He doesn’t have favorites. He imposes benefits upon his children daily simply because he loves us. The Father carries us day by day as a father his child, or a shepherd his lambs; and so he does from the womb even to the sunset of life.

Let us consider what God has done for man. He has given man a world in which to live. He has provided life to enjoy, air to breathe, an earth to tread upon, fire to warm and water to cool and cleanse. He has provided clothes to cover the body, food to nourish, sleep to refresh the body, homes for shelter, and a variety of creatures to serve and delight man.

Now let us consider what he has done for the believer. He has made the believer an ambassador of his cause and granted dominion over all of the earth. He blessed the believer with all spiritual blessings, with an abundance of grace and brand-new mercy every morning. He has enlivened the believer with His Spirit, righteousness for clothing and redemption by the blood of Jesus.

Jesus became vile to make us glorious, a curse to invest blessings in us, and stripes on his back that we might experience spiritual, emotional and physical healing. He gave his live that we might have eternal life.

As you journey on this Christian pilgrimage you’ll encounter situations that warrant murmuring and complaining. But just before you bring credence to that discomforting situation, consider the fact that God has loaded you daily with benefits.

He has given you beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness. He has given you peace in exchange for confusion, a guiding light in the midst of darkness, and strength for weakness. He has given you living water for a thirsty soul, and the bread of life for a hungry soul and intimacy in exchange for isolation. He has provided provision for your visions. He also blessed you to reap a harvest from a field you didn’t sow into.

Give him thanks. We serve the only wise, true and living God who loads his children daily with benefits.—Craig A. Brown²

Forget not His benefits

“Praise the Lord, my soul, and forget not all his benefits—who forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the pit and crowns you with love and compassion, who satisfies your desires with good things so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.”—Psalm 103:2–5³

A recurring difficulty on our journey of life is becoming so focused on what we need at the moment that we forget what we already have. I was reminded of that when our church choir sang a beautiful anthem based on Psalm 103. “Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all His benefits.”⁴ The Lord is our forgiver, healer, redeemer, provider, satisfier, and renewer.⁵ How could we forget that? And yet we often do when the events of daily life shift our attention to pressing needs, recurring failures, and circumstances that seem out of control.

The writer of this Psalm calls us to remember, “The Lord is compassionate and gracious . . . He does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities. For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his love for those who fear him.”⁶

In our walk of faith, we come to Jesus Christ humbled by our unworthiness. There is no sense of entitlement as we receive His grace and are overwhelmed by the lavishness of His love. They remind us of all His benefits. “Praise the Lord, my soul; all my inmost being, praise his holy name.”⁷—Our Daily Bread Ministries⁸

Abundance

“What shall I render to the Lord for all his benefits to me? I will lift up the cup of salvation and call on the name of the Lord, I will pay my vows to the Lord in the presence of all his people. Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints.”—Psalm 116:12–15⁹

It is always encouraging to me to see how the Lord works differently in each of our lives, carefully and lovingly giving us what we need to help us learn, grow, and mature. He has a plan that will make each of us into the vessels of His love that we need to be.

So if you're struggling about anything in your life, remember that it's well worth it to hold on and to keep fighting! Keep your eyes on the goal, so that even though things around you may be in turmoil, you will be able to have the confidence that it won't last forever, but there will always be a light at the end of the tunnel. If you keep the faith and hold tight to the abundant promises in His Word, you will eventually see the fulfillment of His promises.

Remind yourself daily of all the gifts of love that He freely dispenses because He loves you—just you! He loved you enough to give His life for you. He still loves you enough to give His life for you, and He daily shares His life, His joy, His compassion, His anointing, His strength, His help, His blessings, and His Word—priceless treasures above all that we can ask or think!

He loves you above life itself, for He gave His life for you! His presence is with you, He watches over you every moment. He knows your every thought, your every desire, and He always answers in the way that will be in your best interests. He is always there for you, always present and never absent.

In Him we experience the greatest love that we have ever known, from the lover of all lovers, the friend of all friends, the one who is always with us, the one who will never fail us, the one in whose loving arms we can always rest without worry, without fear of failure, without condemnation. How richly blessed we are, above all people on the face of the earth! How very much we have to be thankful for!

He daily loads us with His abundant blessings so that we have so much we can't contain it all! Now we have to do all we can to share our faith with others so they can also partake of these never-ending riches. And the more we share it, the more He'll pour it on! The more we praise Him for what He has already given us, the more He will give!

So keep giving. Keep loving. Keep praising, and you'll continue to be amazed at all that the Lord will do!—Maria Fontaine

Blessed

“Blessed shall you be when you come in, and blessed shall you be when you go out.”—Deuteronomy 28:6¹⁰

The promise, “Blessed shall you be when you come in, and blessed shall you be when you go out,” refers to being blessed in the affairs of one’s daily life, whether in or outside one’s home.

So here, God is saying that you are blessed in your everyday life. … Psalm 68:19 says, “Blessed be the Lord, who daily loads us with benefits, the God of our salvation!” And because God’s Word says so, believe that every day of your life is loaded with benefits. Every morning, when you get up, believe that it is a day that the Lord has made, and rejoice and be glad in it.¹¹ Start the day expecting it to be loaded with the benefits that God has prepared just for you.

At night, when it is time to sleep, know that you will be blessed when you get up in the morning because there will be another load of benefits from your heavenly Father, who so loves you unconditionally, waiting for you!

You can’t make your blessings happen. But if you will just believe what God has said in His Word and act like it is so, the blessings will manifest in your life. In fact, God wants to bless you more than you want to be blessed! His Word declares it … Beloved, believe God’s Word. Believe Him for the blessings, and you will find yourself loaded with His daily benefits!—Joseph Prince¹²

Published on Anchor January 2017. Read by Reuben Ruchevsky.
Music by Michael Dooley.

¹ KJ 2000.

² http://blackandchristian.com/articles/shining/brown-11-06.shtml.

³ NIV.

⁴ Psalm 103:2 NKJV.

⁵ See Psalm 103:3–5.

⁶ Psalm 103:8, 10–11.

⁷ Psalm 103:1.

⁸ http://odb.org/2016/01/03/all-his-benefits.

⁹ ESV.

¹⁰ ESV.

¹¹ Psalm 118:24.