Journal Entry ~ 08/19/19

1 Come, bless the LORD, all you servants of the LORD, who stand by night in the house of the LORD! 
2 Lift up your hands to the holy place and bless the LORD! 
3 May the LORD bless you from Zion, he who made heaven and earth!  - Psalm 134 

Blessing the Lord and lifting our hands in praise is honoring God as Creator of this universe and my life. He is the sovereign ruler of all - daily I need to remind myself of this truth, or my sinful heart will try to creep right back on to the throne. 

Daily, I try to take control of my life. I kid myself into thinking I have the wisdom, power, and character to bring control into the chaos of my life. I don't. But I have been known to think I do, and then get quite offended when people don't submit to my plan. I will insert myself right into the middle, and make it all about me. My ideas about what is best, my expectations over the circumstances or people in my life all become a priority - then I have the audacity to become offended when things don’t go according to my plan. 

But I don't have the right, the power, or the need to control when I remember I have Him. He rules over all things for His glory. Daily, He calls me to surrender control and rest in His sovereign care and in His plan. 

We are called to bless God with our whole heart. Our whole heart - that should stop you in your tracks and cause us to search the depths of your heart. Can you say with complete confidence that you are thankful to the Lord with your whole heart. In the company of the congregation, can you say with great integrity, that you are completely thankful for everything you’ve got in life? That’s how we are to be when we bless Him - we are not to hold anything back. We are to be all out thankful for all that we have or are going through because the sovereign ruler of the universe has allowed it to happen in our lives. 

Blessing the Lord is about throwing away our plan for our lives and submitting to His. It’s a daily struggle to give up what we want and submit to His hand, but it is where we find His blessings. If we want to know the blessings of the Lord, then we need to get down off the throne of our lives and submit to Him. We need to surrender our ideas for how it should go and accept His plan. When we humble ourselves in recognition of this truth, it becomes so much easier to accept the circumstances that come into our lives, and to see it all as abundant blessings from the Lord. 


Press on ~ your are loved 💗

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