You Stressing? God is Blessing!

Beloved, On Sunday, our message was entitled, "God Is Always Blessing". My hope and prayer is that if you were with us in the sanctuary, on Facebook Live, or on the Zoom teleconference, you began to feel your confidence in the impactful presence of God in your life begin to rise in the truth that God is always truly blessing us. Beloved, as shared on Sunday, blessings come in two main ways - grace and mercy - with grace being the unmerited favor of God and mercy being God not punishing us in a way that our sins merit. To these, we also shared that discipline, God initiating, instigating and expecting right and righteous behavior from us is also a blessing. As a result, when tough times come against us, and tough times are either here, coming or on their way out, then we do not have to be overly stressed about the tough times if we will allow our faith to lead us to greater trust and belief in the love that God has for us. So, keeping it real, are you stressing? Who in your family or among your friends is sick, ill, unwell and is in need of a health blessing? Is it you? Who in your family or among your friends is between opportunities, just making ends meet, wanting to stack up dollar bills instead of bills to be paid and is in need of a wealth blessing? Is it you? Who in your family or among your friends is finding strife with others, difficulty with others, fighting with others and is in need of a relationship blessing? Is it you? Beloved, be it you, your family, or your friends, whomever it may be, what is happening right now has you or somebody else stressing? You are stressing because you are trying to work out the impossible and improbable within your limited power and are having a really challenging time trying to find a way forward. Praise God that God knows all, sees all and can do all. Your stressing right now is an opportunity for you to see God in a bigger and better way in your life. Know this. All blessings ultimately come from God, even if God uses people, places, and things as conduits, bridges, for God's blessings. When you are being blessed, you need to make sure that you do not stop at what you see. Try to see in your blessing the one who you cannot physically see, God. So, when the stress comes, you need to look for the blessings that only come from God. The Apostle Paul put it this way in Romans 8:31-32, "What then are we to say about these things (that are stressing us out)? If God is for us (which He is), who is against us (that is greater than God)? He who did not withhold his own Son (the ultimate blessing), but gave him up for all of us (while we were stressing), will he not with him also (keep on blessing and) give us everything else (so that we can stop stressing)?" Beloved, stress is not a bad thing; but, what you do with your stress can be good or bad, a blessing or a curse. If you truly believe that God is always blessing, which you should, then you can seek to experience joy in your stressing because you know that it is going to eventually be resolved through the revelation of God's grace, God's mercy, and/or God's discipline. And, in the end, your season of stressing and testing will gave way to a season of relief and testimony of God's blessing that will be a part of your love story from God that you can use to encourage and inspire yourself as well as others. Just remember, "You stressing? God is blessing!" Beloved, I encourage those desiring to move from stressing to blessing to connect today for Noonday Prayer. Beloved, I encourage those desiring to move from stressing to blessing to listen to our sermonic message on The Light radio/internet broadcast at 3pm. Beloved, I encourage those desiring to move from stressing to blessing to show up for worship service on Sunday morning - in person, on Facebook Live, or on the Zoom teleconference. I know that we know how to be stressed. I want to make sure that we know how to be blessed. Why? Remember, God loves you and I love you too! Be blessed, Rev. Cain