October 2, 2022
Positive Thinking-Get Your Week Started Off Right!
This Week’s Message: Don’t Block your Blessing-
Today is Monday; use this week to reflect on your life to see if there are any areas where you could be blocking your blessings. The Bible is filled with the Lord’s promises, however a lot of times we tend to block them without even realizing it. God wants to give His children life in abundance; He is our Provider, Genesis 22:14. The thing is we can hinder or delay His promises for our lives by disobeying His Word.
Some of the ways that we can prevent our blessings are: not watching the things that we say, harboring unforgiveness, or clinging onto your pride, just to name a few. Regardless of what the reason is that you are not prospering in life, you want to evaluate your situation so that you can get to the bottom of it and find out why. What we do know is that God wants for us to have a plentiful life where we have every bit of what we need, John 10:10.
So, if you find yourself consistently struggling and you cannot catch a break, you have to ask yourself why? Why am I not receiving the Blessings that the Lord is promising throughout His Word? Once you can take an honest look at your life, you will have an idea of what it is that could be blocking your Blessings so that you can change it.
A lot of people will just assume that “things are supposed to be like this,” or “I’m just unlucky,” when that is so far from the case. If you are a true believer of the Lord Jesus Christ and are walking in right standing with Him meaning that you are adhering to His Biblical Law, then you are a candidate for His Blessings and Promises.
So many problems could be resolved if we just got into the Word of God and read it to understand it and applied it to our lives. The Lord mapped it all out for us in the Bible but a lot of us refuse to take the time to read and meditate on His Word. Don’t let your disobedience cause you to miss out on what the Lord has for you. He tells us in Matthew 6:33 “But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.”
Watch what you say:
Proverbs 18:21 “Death and life are in the power of the tongue,
And those who love it will eat its fruit.”
We have all hard our weak moments at one time or another when it is extremely difficult to hold your tongue! I mean someone says something to you that is so vial and harsh that you want to unleash every single negative word that you can possibly think of. That is exactly what the devil wants you to do. He knows that as long as he can get you to get completely out of your character, he has you exactly where he wants you.
Can you imagine professing that you are a born again believer of the Lord Jesus Christ but out of your mouth you are speaking words that show otherwise. You can mess around and ruin your witness for the Lord by allowing a moment of fragility cause you to show all the way out! The enemy will be right there waiting so that he can take your moment of weakness and use it to his benefit.
The positive message for last week was how to be a light in the middle of darkness. None of us are going to be perfect but we have to try to do the best that we can to be the salt of this world considering the fact that we are the vessels being used by the Lord to shine His light, Matthew 5:13-14.
We have to be so careful about the words that come out of our mouths because we can establish negative outcomes or curses depending on the words that we say. When we are proclaiming the Word of God, standing on His promises, and living according to what the Bible instructs, we are promised to be blessed by God, Deuteronomy 28:2.
On the contrary, you can literally block your blessing by speaking against what the Lord has promised you. That is why Proverbs 18:21 is such a significant verse of scripture because Death and life is literally in the power of your tongue. If you ever wonder why you continue to remain in a negative frame of mind, evaluate how you speak. It is extremely revealing and you can actually turn your situation around by two simple things: speak God’s Truth and silence the devil’s lies!
Don’t Harbor Unforgiveness:
Matthew 6:15 “But if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.”
Harboring unforgiveness is a huge blessing blocker. It is also one of the number one entry ways that the enemy can legally enter our lives and create chaos. The unfortunate part about it is that a lot of Christians do not view unforgiveness as a sin. The word of God is clear on this matter in this verse of scripture, if we do not forgive others He will not forgive us. He commands us to forgive our brothers and sisters that have wronged us, Matthew 18:35.
It can be so difficult to let certain things go especially when you feel like what was done to you was unforgivable. The thing is we have to get to the point in our lives that we care more about our spiritual, mental, physical, and emotional well-being than we care about clinging onto the offense. When we fail to forgive we will feel the repercussions of it in every single area of our lives. It isn’t worth the long term damage that you will endure because you wanted to harbor unforgiveness.
Let’s look at scripture so we can see what some of the consequences are for the inability to forgive:
Matthew 18:34-35 “And his master was angry, and delivered him to the torturers until he should pay all that was due to him.
“So My heavenly Father also will do to you if each of you, from his heart, does not forgive his brother his trespasses.”
Breaking down these two Bible verses we can see here that what the Lord is trying to say to us is if we fail to let our offenses go, he will hand us over to the torturers (the devil and his demons). This Spiritual law being broken is what is giving the enemy the legal right to wreak havoc and he will. That is why he will shoot fiery arrows at your mind regarding the thing that was done to you.
He wants those thoughts to remain so that you can develop negative emotions like animosity, hatred, and unforgiveness. This is how his kingdom operates, their sole purpose is to steal, kill, and destroy by any means necessary, John 10:10. Your inability to forgive someone for something that was done to you will create unnecessary sickness and disease, it will eat you up spiritually, hinder your prayers form being heard, alter your sleep, and cause many other negative effects.
You are the one that is going to suffer the consequences by harboring hatred in your heart. It is not worth it, especially if you want to progress in your walk with Jesus Christ. Just take a step back and reminisce on everything that you have ever done to others in your life whether known or unknown. Then realize that all of your sins have been forgiven because of the shed blood of Christ. So, He’s expecting every one of us to extend that same type of grace to others.
Do not cling onto pride:
Isaiah 2:12 “For the day of the Lord of hosts Shall come upon everything proud and lofty,
Upon everything lifted up—And it shall be brought low—”
The Lord does not sugarcoat the fact that He absolutely loathes pride, and He makes it very clear all throughout Scripture. In fact Satan was cast out of Heaven because he was under the impression that he could actually compete with God Almighty, Isaiah 14:12-14. Boy was he sadly mistaken!
When the Lord is talking about pride He is referencing conceit, arrogance, big headedness, being stuck on yourself, etc. He is not referring to the kind of pride that a father would have for their child after something that they have accomplished. This is a healthy emotion for us to have. Egotism on the other hand can get us into a lot of trouble.
Pride will most definitely block your blessings. It makes you puffed up to the point where you feel like you can do it all yourself when the fact is that none of us can. As Christians we are up against a powerful adversary that is coming straight for your jugular. Without the power of God we are not going to stand a chance to overcome his tactics. That is why we need to approach every aspect of our lives with the spirit of humility.
Let’s look at some promises one receives for having a humble attitude.
James 4:6 “But He gives more grace. Therefore He says: “God resists the proud,
But gives grace to the humble.”
Proverbs 22:4 “By humility and the fear of the Lord Are riches and honor and life.”
1 Peter 5:6 “Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time.”
Now let’s look at some consequences:
Proverbs 16:5 “Everyone proud in heart is an abomination to the Lord; Though they join forces, none will go unpunished.”
Luke 14:11 “For whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.”
Proverbs 11:2 “When pride comes, then comes shame; But with the humble is wisdom.”
You can block your blessing or receive a blessing based on the demeanor in which you approach your life with. The main reason why having too much arrogance is such a negative thing is because the Lord cannot use someone that is filled with pride the way that He wants to. It has to be you decreasing as He increases (John 3:30) and His will be done and not yours, (Mark 14:36).
Use this week to reflect on things in your life that could be hindering the Blessings of the Lord. It could be because of the things that you say, harboring unforgiveness, or clinging on to too much pride. Regardless of what it is, it is keeping you from living your life in abundance the way the Lord wants every one of His children to live. Take the time out to try to make those necessary changes, get into your Word daily, and stand on the promises of God!
If you’ve missed some of the previous Positive Weekly Messages, no worries I am linking them below:
Positive Thinking-Get Your Week Started Off Right! September 24, 2022
Positive Thinking-Get Your Week Started Off Right! September 19, 2022
Positive Thinking-Get Your Week Started Off Right! September 12, 2022
Positive Thinking-Get Your Week Started Off Right! September 6, 2022
Positive Thinking-Get Your Week Started Off Right! August 28, 2022
Positive Thinking-Get Your Week Started Off Right! August 22.2022
Other blogs pertaining to this topic are:
Proverbs Scriptures Designed for a Queen!
Proverbs Scriptures that you need in your life Right Now!
3 Powerful Reminders that you need in your Life Now!
5 Words That Will Help Keep You Positive!