Blessings

 Greetings to you all in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ,

     Matthew 5:42-43 says, “ Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy.  But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you;”

     I was recently prepared to speak on First Peter 5 but a lady came in late and requested a song, “Count Your  Blessings.”  I had already sung that hymn and had sung for about 15 minutes and was getting ready to speak when she requested it.  So, I sang it again and noticed as I was singing that many blessings were listed right there in the song.  I ended up speaking on the items mentioned in the four verses of the song.  Sometimes our plans get changed, even at the last moment.

     The word “blessing and bless” occur 172 times in the Bible with Genesis leading the count wit h 52 times and the Old Testament and with Revelation having 8 times in the New Testament.  Little did I know  that I would be needing  the lesson of the “blessings of God” myself before the day would be done.  As many of you know, Diane is suffering from dementia and OCD.  Some of the people have more of a problem with that   and as a result she was asked to leave the dining room without any food and to return to her room.  I was extremely irritated by that action as it has occurred frequently on the weekends.  An action taken against my wife is an action against me also.  My anger calmed down from its initial level and soon the blessings that had come from the song were again in my  mind.  Another course of action needs to be taken which involves the above passage of Scripture.  The following words, “do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you;”  I can’t  say what the feelings are of the person that is involved in  the issue but I am concerned about my own feelings  towards the individual involved.  Our attitude towards them should be to do good to them that are not liking the way we are.  So, we should be blessing  those that are having a problem accepting dementia and OCD and to pray for our own attitudes toward them which is a lesson that I need to learn and perhaps some others also.  Praise God that He is s till working on us and through us.