Serve The Lord; He Shall Bless Thee...

And ye shall serve the LORD your God, and he shall bless thy bread, and thy water; and I will take sickness away from the midst of thee.

Exodus 23:25

The first step that we must take in walking according to the will of God is to serve Him wholeheartedly… When Moses was given the 10 commandments on mount Sinai, the 20^th chapter of Exodus starts of with these words; And God spoke all these words: “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. “You shall have no other gods before me.” This first commandment given to mankind was to make sure that God has priority in your life amongst all other things which may serve as detractors or snares throughout your journey… This first commandment echoes today’s focus verse which calls for us to server the Lord you God… Life is full of decisions; from the time that you open your eyes decisions are being made at a rapid pace… You decide when and/or whether you are going to get out of bed; you decide what to wear and what’s for breakfast… If you have a vehicle to travel in, you decide how fast you want to drive (tickets could be an issue) and how you are going to interact with your co-workers or fellow students… Just about every second we are making decisions and all the decisions that we make carry consequences with them… Today, we are reminded that deciding to serve the Lord unlocks the ability to have all our needs met… Notice that the word of God says He shall bless thy bread, and thy water, but this will happen after we choose to serve the Lord… The blessings that God has prepared for you can only be received when your approach to life isn’t about things of this world but of the things of Christ… There are so many of us being plagued by the visible things in this world that we are missing out on the blessings that God has designed for us… You are caught up with the worldly perspective of what success means and so you find yourself adhering to false pretenses that are depriving you from reaching your God given destiny… The world says that services is a sign of weakness, it is a debilitating position which can produce unwanted comments and insults being hurled toward the person occupying this role… We look down on being a servant when we have the mindset and share the opinions of this world; however, in looking down on services we actually are looking down on God as if we are too good to bow down and get on our knees which in turn is a direct result as to why you aren’t blessed in the manner that you wish you were… The bible says that without faith it is impossible to please God… I reference this scripture to make the point that faith requires an ability to serve… Jesus took the lowest position on earth because of the faith He had in the plan of the father… You can willingly submit and humble yourself before the Lord in service knowing that He will exalt you in due time… In thinking about service, I am so amazed at how much we may reject this ability when in fact our life is filled with serving others… We work a job to serve a duty to the those who employ us and can’t be faithful to God and serve Him when He created us… These instructions given unto the Israelites are instructions that we should adhere to today in our daily walk…

First and most importantly, we shall serve the Lord thy God; so many people attend church every Sunday, usually come out to bible study and think that this is serving the Lord! To serve in this since means to give out… Yes you are giving of your time, but are you really giving of yourself! Have you begun to alter you lifestyle, have you made changes in your life to reflect God’s influence and will for your life! If I am attending church, but the church doesn’t live in me than I am not serving the Lord! When we serve we are humble, we honor, we respect and we appreciated the things that God has done and has promised to do… The Lord told the Israelites that He would bless thy bread and water; He said that He would take sickness away from the midst of them… In Christ, you can rest assured that your service in not in vain… The things you do will be rewarded and the actions you take will not go unnoticed… Understand that bread and water are vital to our life; God will supply all your needs (not wants because what you want may not be what you need) according to His riches in glory… Service is a two-way street, when we serve the Lord He in turn serves us… This can be something as small as saying your prayer before you lay down at night and praising God through prayer when you awake, service could be speaking kind words to one another as oppose to tear each other down… When we are in service for the Lord we are honoring His name with our living and in return He honors us with His blessings and compassion…God made several promises to the Israelites, from delivering them out of slavery to giving them a Promise Land flowing with milk and honey… Note the facts of promises that God has made in your life, in the book of Malachi we are told to test the Lord in giving and that when we do, He will shower down blessing upon us, the bible also tells us that we can cast all our cares upon the Lord and that He will deliver us… He has promised to purge you and sanctify you so that you may become the vessel that He molded you into from creation! We must understand today that God hasn’t drop the ball when we look at the standing of this world, God has not abandoned us nor has He made promises that He cannot keep! We have messed up, we have screwed up, and we have tried to take our lives into our own hands! Let us focus now on serving God, praising God and worship God! This is the key to turning our lives around and more importantly, impacting this world and letting everyone know that He reigns forever! If you are sick, serve the Lord… If you are weak, serve the Lord…Those who find themselves in storms, obstacles, hardships, trials and tribulations need to serve the Lord… Your answer can only be found in service for the Lord… The bible says that those who humble themselves shall be exalted; the last shall be first… This means that when we recognize the Lord and submit ourselves to him (service) we will then be lifted up and blessed according to His will and promises…

BE BLESSED!!!