God Is Eager To Bless Us...By Nina Keegan

In reading Haggai 2:18-20 I came across this scripture..

Concerning the rebuilding of the Lords Temple... 

"Think carefully I am giving you a promise now while the seed is still in the barn. You have not yet harvested your grain, and your grape vines, fig trees, pomegranates, and olive trees have not yet produced their crops. But from this day on word I will bless you!"

After the people had started to relay the foundation of the temple God blessed them immediately. He did not wait for the project to be completed...  the very minute we take a few steps of obedience in the right direction to do what God wants us to do,  He sends his encouragement and his approval.. God is so eager to bless us!... Even while our seed is still in the barn!

So much of our abilities to be blessed depends on our obedience to what the Lord is calling us to do. We can't keep asking God to order our steps and put us in his plan if were too lazy to move or if were being too disobedient to change the things God is asking us to change.
If we want to be blessed we need to lay down the sins that beset us, where are we continually being disobedient?

 What is blocking your blessing? Where are you continually having to travel around the mountain time and again? Is it through grumbling, faultfinding, complaining, perhaps it's a bad attitude, gossip, or it's perpetual negativity and never believing anything good will happen to you. Is it your" this is just my lot in life"attitude that keeps you cemented to the floor and not being able to move on God's precious path for your life…?

God has made a promise to us..the Bible says we are to be blessed beyond measure while our seed is still in the barn,  but we are the one that has to open the barn doors and walk out into the sunshine and let the seed be planted. Gods asking us to amen Him and obey Him! 

God wants you to be encouraged, He wants to prosper you, bless you and restore you.  Repentance  and obedience can help you clean up any areas in your life that God is calling on you to change.  Be decisive and determined in taking these steps to

getting yourself right with God.  

God will surely open the doors of blessing for us but if we insist on harboring wrong attitudes and sins and are willfully disobeying God, we will not see any personal growth..  

Holy living will come only when we are empowered by God's Holy Spirit, we will see change when we acknowledge to God that we have sinned and are in need of change. We cannot change what we will not willfully lay down! Only God can wipe away our sins and make us shiny, empty, new, vessels to be filled and overflowing with the blessings of the Lord. Seek His help, ask Him to help you rid your self of sin and disobedience.

God wants our priorities to be right. He wants to motivate us to obey Him. Let's remember to give God a higher place of honor than our own personal comfort.  Through true repentance, praise and worship we can give him all glory! 

He does promise to strengthen us and to guide us when we give Him first place in our life!

God bless you all!

 Scriptures:

He that observeth the wind shall not sow; and he that regardeth the clouds shall not reap. As thou knowest not what is the way of the spirit, nor how the bones do grow in the womb of her that is with child: even so thou knowest not the works of God who maketh all. In the morning sow thy seed, and in the evening withhold not thine hand: for thou knowest not whether shall prosper, either this or that, or whether they both shall be alike good. (Ecclesiastes 11:4-6)

God’s Desire for You to Prosper
God wants to use you to build His kingdom, His house! In Exodus 12:13, it was no accident that God gave the wealth of the Egyptians to the children of Israel. He wanted them to build His tabernacle in the wilderness.

God’s Abundance for Those Who Build His Kingdom
Prosperity is the result of a decision we make to build God’s kingdom, His work. Only as we make that decision will God prosper us. In fact, greed will destroy prosperity: “So are the ways of every one that is greedy of gain; which taketh away the life of the owners thereof” (Proverbs 1:19). Greed destroys prosperity!

Psalm 35:27 says:

“Let them shout for joy, and be glad, that favour my righteous cause: yea, let them say continually, Let the Lord be magnified, which hath pleasure in the prosperity of his servant.”

Psalm 84:11

“For the Lord God is a Sun and Shield; the Lord bestows [present] grace and favor and [future] glory (honor, splendor, and heavenly bliss)! No good thing will He withhold from those who walk uprightly.”

Psalm 115:14

“May the Lord give you increase more and more, you and your children.”

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Spring Cleaning by Nina Keegan

I recently and with great caution opened the door to my storage closet with the best of intentions to do my,"spring cleaning" I took one look inside at the cardboard boxes, bags of who knows what, a plethora of abandoned "tchotchkes" of every fathomable persuasion, you know, the things I haven't even seen in a couple years, all that 'stuff' I couldn't possibly live without, "sigh". Overwhelmingly I declared, "This is not happening today!" So, I promptly closed the door and declared my spring cleaning officially finished! 

Out of site, out of mind!

We tend to stuff things away that we think we need to hold on to, " just in case!" We essentially become bogged down with weighty, old inventory. We stuff it all in there, we cram it down until alas the door can finally close it all off to the world. We never have to face it again until we perhaps grab hold, once again to the guilt laden, spring cleaning self talk!

Our minds are so much like those over stuffed messy closets.

What do we stuff away in those closets deep in our thoughts? What is crammed in weighing down our our hearts, emotions, our souls?

 There is so much abandoned but not forgotten junk we should not be holding on to in those dusty corners of our mind. They are often over flowing with pain, deep hurt, un-forgiveness, regret,guilt, and bitterness. Or perhaps your closet is lined with approval addiction, fear of punishment, fear of failure, self disqualification, trauma, grief and loss.

 Pain is the place where we can always meet authentically with God. He knows where you are who has hurt you and why and He is never surprised by what's in your closet. We cannot hide anything from God.

  Enough is enough! It is time to clean house and let everything go. It is time to make God your priority over your pain. The Bible says we are to have and enjoy our lives every day no matter what's going on. We can still experience joy with Jesus regardless of our circumstances.

God wants to meet you right there, in your closet. God wants to be the light in the darkness and restore you on every level.

2 Cor 4:6

For God, who said, “Let there be light in the darkness,” has made this light shine in our hearts so we could know the glory of God that is seen in the face of Jesus Christ.

What have you endured for the sake of peace?  What have you stuffed down because the process of letting go and healing can be so painful? 

Pain brings up what's really at the core of who we are. It pushes us past faking things for the sake of avoiding conflict. 

When we are face to face with the pain, which bin will we finally place it in? 

 Sometimes it is easier to hang on to the hurt by stuffing it down and closing it off then it is to actually let it go by trusting it all to Jesus? 

It's time to let loose and let go of your obligation of pretending everything is OK!

It's OK to clear out your fear of disappointment. There is nothing more universal than this, but God is in charge!  He is on the throne and it is God's mission to help you clean up, clear out, and declutter your life. 

 He wants you to be a spotless, wiped clean, empty vessel, ready to be filled with His glorious power and purpose for your life.

2 Timothy 2:21

Therefore if anyone cleanses himself from these things, he will be a vessel for honor, sanctified, useful to the Master, prepared for every good work.

All we have to do is seek Him, "God where are you in this?"

He's is never not where you are! 

Even through the pain God is always good. He is always working out a testimony in us that ultimately brings us confidence in who He is! Being in the war with God( bringing Him into our mess), gives us a clear path to His promise of restoration.

 This makes it abundantly clear that our victory is always from God, not from ourselves. 

 It is time to get real with God whereby we confidently learn of His credibility as we experience His fullness in the trenches.

Go into your closet, meet God there! It's finally time for some spring cleaning! God is waiting for you!

Matthew 6:6

But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly.