Nancy Guthrie - Abundant Life Day Book. 365 Blessings to Begin Your Day

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Abundant Life Day Book: 365 Blessings to Begin Your Day

Copyright 2011 by Nancy Guthrie. All rights reserved.

Cover pattern copyright nicoolay/iStockphoto. All rights reserved.

Butterfly illustration copyright Neubau Welt. All rights reserved.

Wrap photograph of sunset copyright Jelena Veskovic/iStockphoto. All rights reserved.

Designed by Al Navata

Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible , New Living Translation, copyright 1996, 2004, 2007 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations marked ESV are taken from The Holy Bible , English Standard Version (ESV), copyright 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations marked NIV are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version , NIV . Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984, 2010 by Biblica, Inc. TM Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.com.

ISBN 978-1-4143-4818-6

Blessing is the pronouncing of Gods favor. It includes the gifts that God gives as the evidence of His love and favor, but blessing is more than what God gives. It is the bond of favor that joins Gods people with Him.

Dr. Edmund Clowney,

The Unfolding Mystery

Introduction

Have you ever wondered why we say God bless you to people when they sneeze? There was a time when sneezing was a symptom of the deathly plague. And because getting the plague was considered a sign of Gods displeasure, saying, God bless you when someone sneezed was offering a prayer that the person would receive the blessing of Godongoing liferather than dying from the plague. To be blessed is to have lifeabundant, overflowing life.

In the best-known blessing from the Bible, we read that the Lord instructed Moses to tell Aaron and his sons to bless the people of Israel with this special blessing:

May the L ORD bless you

and protect you.

May the L ORD smile on you

and be gracious to you.

May the L ORD show you his favor

and give you his peace. (Numbers 6:24-26)

God wanted his people to enjoy the assurance of his intention to bless them. From this special blessing we learn that to be blessed is to see the smile of God over our lives rather than to live under his frown. It is to experience his ongoing grace rather than expect his condemnation. It is to enjoy Gods favor rather than endure his rejection. It is to be at peace with him rather than being his enemy.

Experiencing Gods blessing is not merely getting good things from God. The essence of blessing is God himself. When we begin to see how much God has given to us in Christ, and how much he is worth, we realize that all of the things we were hoping to get from Godgood health, loving relationships, protection from harm, material provisionare only temporary, tangible reminders of all we have in Christ. As blessed people we can say along with the psalmist:

I desire you more than anything on earth.

My health may fail, and my spirit may grow weak,

but God remains the strength of my heart;

he is mine forever. (Psalm 73:25-26)

As we begin this journey together over the next year, there are two important things you must know. First, while Ive taken great liberty in writing these blessings as if they are God speaking to you, the only aspect of each days blessing that has the authority of God is the Word of God quoted at the top of each page. Writing as if it is God who is speaking is only a device employed for the purpose of helping you hear him speak his blessing personally to you. My hope is that it will serve to make the Scripture come alive and become even more precious to you. I have sought to be faithful to Gods Word in expounding on it and applying it using this literary device, and have done so with a sense of holy fear, prayerfully seeking to be one who correctly explains the word of truth (2 Timothy 2:15).

Second, you need to know that the Bible makes it clear that while God offers his goodness to all who will embrace Christ by faith, he does not force his blessing on those who do not desire him. But if you want him, he will freely give himself to you. You do not have to earn Gods blessing (in fact, you cant earn it!). You do not have to deserve Gods blessing (in fact, no one deserves it!). You cannot twist Gods arm or wrestle his blessing from his reluctant grasp using the right technique or the right prayer. This life with God is not about what he wants you to do for him, but what he has done for you through Christ.

If you have lingered away from God, fearing what he will demand of you, unsure of all it will mean for you, you need not stay away any longer. If you have settled for trying to be a good person or a spiritual person, you can become a completely new person. You can turn to Christ and take hold of him by faith. Tell him that you want to belong to him, to know him and be known by him, to be changed by him. He is being patient for your sake. He does not want anyone to be destroyed, but wants everyone to repent (2 Peter 3:9 ) Then youll be able to celebrate that he has enabled you to share in the inheritance that belongs to his people, who live in the light (Colossians 1:12).

That is what this book is aboutthe blessing and inheritance that belong to Gods people. I invite you to celebrate that blessing and revel in that inheritance. I invite you to drench your soul in this steady stream of Gods blessing given to you freely and fully in Christ. I hope that youll open this book day after day along with Gods Word, and that youll open your life to all that God has given to us in Christ, confident that because he did not spare even his own Son but gave him up for us all, [he will] also give us everything else (Romans 8:32).

Nancy Guthrie

January

I Am Making You into a New Person

Anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun! And all of this is a gift from God.

2 Corinthians 5:17-18

In your old life you lived for yourselffor what brought you temporary pleasure, for what made sense in your worldly way of thinking and had value in your worldly way of measuring worth. I love you far too much to let you linger in that old life. That life is gone for good. The old you is gone for good. Ive made you into a completely new creationfresh and new on the insideblessing you with a fresh perspective about what really matters and a youthful vigor for pursuing me.

This newness is no self-willed fix-yourself-up, become-a-better-you self-improvement project. Your newness is not an effort I required of you but a gift from me, a work of my Spirit from start to finish.

I know I am new, and yet I find myself so easily embracing old habits, old grudges, old patterns of thinking. Im turning toward you today, Lord, so that I can walk in this newness of life in the words I speak, the thoughts I think, the pleasures I enjoy...