I AM TRULY BLESSED

"But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well." - Matthew 6:33

Have you ever found yourself obsessing about your needs? There are bills to pay, issues to be dealt with, things needing repaired, boundaries to be re-established, financial and emotional margin to be restored? This has been a tough 2-3 months for me personally. Uncle Sam told me I owed him more money, more than I really had ready access to. Two car repairs that went over $3000 total. We were in the time of the year where we must provide the initial cash for our annual medical deductible.

On top of it, I was just plain busy. The church had just come through a very intense and emotional time of reassessing its priorities and making hard decisions so we could be more faithful to our vision. My counseling load soared and my emotional energy diminished. My putting game totally deserted me, making my one pleasant past-time less pleasant.

Those are times we stop seeking his kingdom and starting seeking a safe place into which to retreat. Personal concerns can rob us of our focus on God's Big Picture. We come to see each day as filled with problems to be solved (knowing they are not going to resolved very well) instead of opportunities to be the blessing God has blessed us to be.

But in the last 3-4 weeks, God has grabbed my attention. He gave me some awesome times at youth camp helping kids get their lives back on track. He sent some faithful prayer partners who lifted me before the throne of grace. He filled my heart and mind with several sermons (that I needed as much as anyone) on "Surviving Tough Times--Developing a Tough Faith." He provided a gift that helped with one of my most frustrating financial concerns. And yesterday, he sent into my office, a new person in our church who I have been mentoring who simply said, "You do not know how much of a blessing you have been to me, and to others here."

When we let God have our attention, when we seek first his kingdom and its righteous--God goes to work to cover the other bases for us.

This email devotional is published on behalf of the Church of God of Landisville and its friends. (C) 2009 by Stephen Dunn. All rights reserved. You can subscribe to this by email by contacting Patty at coglandisville@coglandisville.org.