Blessings of God

Written by: John Sernaque

Stewardship

CS - Counsels on Stewardship (1940) Chapter 2—Our Bountiful Benefactor

As we are continually receiving the blessings of God, so are we to be continually giving. When the heavenly Benefactor ceases to give to us, then we may be excused; for we shall have nothing to bestow. God has never left us without evidence of His love, in that He did us good.... {CS 17.5}

We are sustained every moment by God’s care, and upheld by His power. He spreads our tables with food. He gives us peaceful and refreshing sleep. Weekly He brings to us the Sabbath, that we may rest from our temporal labors, and worship Him in His own house. He has given us His word to be a lamp to our feet and a light to our path. In its sacred pages we find the counsels of wisdom; and as oft as we lift our hearts to Him in penitence and faith, He grants us the blessings of His grace. Above all else is the infinite gift of God’s dear Son, through whom flow all other blessings for this life and for the life to come. {CS 18.1}

Every day I thank God for being so good to me and my family. God provides for all of our needs every day and His mercies are new every morning. So are we to bless others by sharing what God has done for us in our life. The more we bless others, the more that we are blessed by God. He gave All that we may be saved. That is how much God loves us and desires to continue blessing us. But, we must exercise the gift of benevolence He has endowed upon us. It is through our self-less acts that we exemplify the character of Christ. If we do unto the least of His, then we have also done it for Him. If we lift our hearts to Him in penitence and faith, He will grant us the blessings of His grace.

Our kind and gracious Father,

We thank You, and are eternally grateful for the sacrifice You made of Your only begotten son Jesus Christ, so that we may be saved. We pray that as You gave all for us, that we may in turn do the same for You. To surrender and give our life to You and be able to do unto others as we would have them do unto us. To exemplify the self-less character You have provided as an example for us. We pray that we may be able to surpass the level of benevolence required to help those in need. Help us help others that we may all be ready for Your second advent. Save us, dear Lord. Forgive us of our sins. We thank You and praise You. In the name of Christ Jesus, we pray. Amen.