BEING MORE BLESSED BY GOD
The Bible says: “God is good to all” (Psalm 145:9)–“He makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good” (Matthew 5:45). However, “God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God” (Romans 8:28). For those who have a heart to please him. he is “able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us” (Ephesians 3:20).
KING DAVID OF THE OLD TESTAMENT IS AN EXAMPLE OF GOD BLESSING EVEN MORE HIGHLY THOSE WHO PLEASE HIM.
The Lord God said David was “a man after mine own heart,” from the time David was a boy. And God highly blessed him. The Word of God tells how God led David to become a king, and more.
GOD ENABLED DAVID, AS A BOY, TO KILL A GIANT WHO WAS AN ENEMY OF GOD’S PEOPLE. David was shepherd boy, who was seen as a runt even by members of his family. However, “Man looks on the outward appearance but the Lord looks on the heart.” The Lord saw David as “a man after mine own heart.” The Lord sent his prophet Samuel to anoint David as the next king of Israel (1 Samuel 16:1-13).
In David’s journey to the throne, he was just a boy when he slayed a fearsome giant enemy of God’s people. An enormous Philistine giant named Goliath dared any man of Israel to fight him one-on-one. All the men of the army of Israel ran in fear. David volunteered to fight the giant. Although King Saul of Israel viewed David as just a boy, David persuaded the King that God had enabled him to kill a lion and a bear, and he would fight Goliath.
David confronted Goliath with five smooth stones and a slingshot he had used to kill the lion and the bear. Facing Goliath, David told him you come against me with a sword, a spear and a javelin, but “I come to you in the name of the Almighty God” (1 Samuel 17:45 ). David killed Goliath with his sling and a stone. Then he used Goliath’s own sword to cut off his head; the other Philistines fled. (1 Samuel 17).
GOD FAVORED DAVID TO BE A SUCCESSFUL MILITARY LEADER. Because of David’s favor with God, the Lord gave him favor with the people of Israel. The people of Israel chanted “Saul has slain his thousands and David his ten thousand” (1 Samuel 18:7).
Saul did not have God’s favor, because of his tendency to disobeyed God. On more than one occasion, as commander-in-chief, Saul did not carry out God’s orders; and Saul did not repent after he sinned. God rejected him as king and commander-in-chief. ( 1 Samuel 13; 15). After his rejection, Saul eventually committed suicide (1 Samuel 31:4-5).
THE LORD BLESSED DAVID TO BE A KING. After Saul’s death, God made David King of Israel. David ruled Israel all of his life. “David was thirty years old when he became king, and he reigned forty years” (2 Samuel 5:4).
GOD BLESSED DAVID TO BE MORE THAN A BEING KING.
David was privileged be a bodily parent of Jesus Christ the Son of God: ‘The LORD swore to David a sure oath from which he will not turn back: “One of the sons of your body I will set on your throne”’ (Psalm 132:11). “This is the genealogy[a] of Jesus the Messiah the son of David, the son of Abraham…” (Matthew 1).
GOD GIVES WHOEVER BELIEVES AND OBEYS JESUS CHRIST AS LORD AND SAVIOR THE RIGHT TO RECEIVE GOD’S HIGHEST BLESSINGS.
“God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life” (John 3:16; Matthew 7:21). “Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. 2 Do not conform, to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind” (Romans 12:1-2).
As a New Testament true believer in Jesus Christ, God gives you the right in this life to be even more highly blessed than David and John, who baptized the Son of God: Jesus said, “Truly I tell you, among those born of women there has not risen anyone greater than John the Baptist; yet whoever is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he” (Matthew 11:11). For Christ has made people of God’s new covenant “children of God” and “kings and priest unto God” (1 John 3:1; Revelation 1:6).
John said, “I baptize you with water, but he who is mightier than I is coming, the strap of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire” (Luke 3:16). The Lord Jesus Christ said: “Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them. By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive. Up to that time the Spirit had not been given, since Jesus had not yet been glorified” (John 7:38-39).
After Jesus was crucified, resurrected and glorified; many believers in the Lord were baptized with water and filled the Holy Spirit. When Spirit-filled disciples were preaching to a large gathering on the holy day of Pentecost, the apostle Peter advised them: “Repent and be baptized.) every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit” (Acts 2:38).
God says: “If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you” (Romans 8:11). And for pleasing him in this life, God will bless you now (Mark 10:30); and bless you to live with him eternally in heaven with a crown of righteousness (2 Timothy 4:8).
