Trinity Baptist Church

I told a staff member that I was going to preach a message from the book of Haggai, and he said it was not common to hear sermons from Haggai.  I told him that was because most preachers couldn’t find it!  But, I went to the table of contents and found it, and in that book, the people of God were not taking the things of God as being all that important.  As a result, God told them that He was not blessing them, as a matter of fact He was working against them, instead of for them.  Would God really work against His people?  If that is what it takes to get their attention, He will.  He loves us enough to practice tough love.

When God blesses what you do, it makes all the difference in the world.  He can bless a salesman to make many more sales, an inventor to come up with many more useful ideas, or a ditch digger to dig with much more efficiency.

There are many places in the Bible that tell us how to be blessed of God.  It really comes down to being surrendered to Him, with a surrender that results in obedience without hesitation.  This kind of surrender comes forth from a heart that desires to seek a closeness with God.  Philippians 2:13 says, it is God who causes us to want to do His will, and it is God who gives us the power to carry it out.  We do not have to beg Him to give us that will and power, if we are born again, we simply need to live in it by faith.  Second Peter 1:3 says that He has already given us everything that pertains to life and godliness.

What a year 2010 can be for the people of God, if they will but turn to Him with their whole heart, seeking His face, and turning from their wicked ways.  In Psalm 1 God says that if we will turn away from evil counsel and companions, delight in Him through His word, meditating in His word day and night, everything we do will prosper.  That’s a good deal.  I’m going for it.