Stand in the gap

We must pray for our nations, stand in the gap!  Pray for the leaders even if you do not support them, they are chosen by God for a reason even if we do not understand it sometimes.  We may

Bless and be blessed

Christians, when your enemies revile you, do not revile back.  Rather bless them!  Bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them that persecute you.  And if we must do this for our enemies, how much more when the reviling is coming from Christians.  We have been called to be a blessing, so that we can receive the blessings of God.  (When I wrote that on a Christian page, a meanie Christian 'yelled' at me that it is not in the Bible, that I must have gotten that line from a prosperity pastor's book! lol ;) ) That verse (1 Peter 3:9) I was gleaning that from, is talking about temporal and spiritual blessings.

God promises us in His word that He will provide our needs.  God blesses us also spiritually with peace of mind, our sins forgiven and assurance that we have everlasting life!  Our God is a good God.  He thinks good thoughts toward us. 
When we fear Him and walk in His ways, He blesses us.  I am not talking prosperity gospel here, but God does want to bless us.
The Bible says to delight yourself in the Lord and He shall give you the desires of your heart.

I know I'm stuck on this topic of praying for our enemies, blessing them, but I am just so in awe of the love of our God and I want to walk in obedience to Him.  It was just such an eye-opener when God led me to these scriptures the first time.  So many Christians are not doing what Jesus said, to pray for, love and bless all people, even our enemies.  They get mad at me when I write about it. :(  And it's not my words!  It's the word of God!  I also never used to pray for my enemies, but that all changed when I got saved and God started working on my heart.
So forgive me if I keep talking about this topic. :)

John Gill writes the following commentary on "that you may inherit a blessing":

Referring either to what goes before being called by grace to the discharge of all the above duties exhorted to, and particularly to suffer patiently all injuries and affronts; and instead of making returns in the same way, to bless and pray for those that have hurt us, either by words or deeds; see ( 1 Peter 2:20 1 Peter 2:21 ) or to what follows, that ye should inherit a blessing; temporal blessing or blessings; for godliness has the promise of this life and godly persons shall not want any good thing; and even while the blessings of others are cursed they have their outward mercies with a blessing, and they are blessings indeed to them; wherefore, the little they may have is better than the large affluence of others: and also spiritual blessing, or blessings; such as peace of conscience, the pardon of all their sins a justifying righteousness adopting grace, all supplies of grace from Christ, his presence and communion with him: and also an eternal one, even life for evermore; called so, because it springs from the free favour, good will, and blessing of God, and which its being an inheritance also shows; and because such that enjoy it are eternally and unspeakably happy.

"not returning evil for evil or reviling for reviling, but on the contrary blessing, knowing that you were called to this, that you may inherit a blessing."
~•1 Peter 3:9

For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope.
~•Jeremiah 29:11

Delight yourself also in the Lord, And He shall give you the desires of your heart.
~•Psalm 37:4

Trust in Jesus

Isn't Jesus just wonderful? Jesus preached and Simon heard what He said and Jesus must have made a huge impression on Simon because when Jesus told them to cast the nets in deeper waters, he obeyed. He could have just given up hope, because they already tried, but caught nothing.

Because he was obedient, they caught so much fish that their nets almost tore and their boats almost sank! See how the Lord blesses us when we listen to Him and trust in His word!

Simon was so overwhelmed by Jesus' holiness that he was immediately aware of his own sinfulness. When we are in the presence of Jesus, we become acutely aware of our sinful nature. When he comes to dwell in our hearts, He starts cleaning us up. The Holy Spirit makes us aware of any sin that we must get rid of, anything that grieves Him.

Follow the leading of the still inner voice of God. When we obey Him, he will bless us so abundantly that we will not be able to contain it! Best of all, He promises us eternal life!

Let us tell people about this wonderful God of ours, who loved the world so much, that He gave His only begotten Son, so that anyone who believes in Him, shall not perish, but have eternal life. God does not want the evil people to perish, He wants them to repent of their sins and believe and trust in Him. Let us speak out about this Jesus. When we obey Him in this, He will bless us to bring many souls to Him and He will clean them up, we just need to tell them!

As the crowd was pressing in on Jesus to hear God's word, He was standing by Lake Gennesaret.
2 He saw two boats at the edge of the lake; the fishermen had left them and were washing their nets.
3 He got into one of the boats, which belonged to Simon, and asked him to put out a little from the land. Then He sat down and was teaching the crowds from the boat.
4 When He had finished speaking, He said to Simon, "Put out into deep water and let down your nets for a catch."
5 "Master," Simon replied, "we've worked hard all night long and caught nothing! But at Your word, I'll let down the nets."
6 When they did this, they caught a great number of fish, and their nets began to tear.
7 So they signaled to their partners in the other boat to come and help them; they came and filled both boats so full that they began to sink.
8 When Simon Peter saw this, he fell at Jesus' knees and said, "Go away from me, because I'm a sinful man, Lord!"
9 For he and all those with him were amazed at the catch of fish they took,
10 and so were James and John, Zebedee's sons, who were Simon's partners. "Don't be afraid," Jesus told Simon. "From now on you will be catching people!"
11 Then they brought the boats to land, left everything, and followed Him.
•~Luke 5:1-11