Bless the Lord, O my soul;
And all that is within me, bless His holy name!
Bless the Lord, O my soul,
And FORGET NOT ALL HIS BENEFITS:
Who forgives ALL your iniquities,
Who heals ALL your diseases,
Who redeems your life from destruction,
Who crowns you with lovingkindness and tender mercies,
Who satisfies your mouth with good things,
So that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s. (Psalm 103:1-5)
There are a million and one reasons to be thankful for simply because He knows us inside out like no other. He values us more than we can think, dare or imagine. He sees us beautiful and dearly loves us steadfastly. His intimate knowledge of who we are, what we do, our thoughts and the intents of our hearts are beyond comprehension. When at times we fall short of His glory, He reminds us of our real identity of being His beloveds, restores our confidence that we are always welcomed to commune with Him, reveals to us His secrets how to live and enjoy life and have it more abundantly, and He graces us to live it out by the presence and power of the Holy Spirit.
He excessively loads us with benefits at the onset of the day until we lay our heads to sleep. For us to savor and enjoy every bit of it, we need to pause and ponder what they are, recognize them and acknowledge the One Who paid the utmost price, our Lord Jesus Christ. His finished work at Calvary secured all His promises. He prepared a feast of His goodness and mercy for us to partake, to experience, to explore and to express.
As I was thinking of the blessings that He poured upon my life, I remembered Psalm 139 that bore the title “YOU KNOW ALL ABOUT ME!” I went through these verses and they shoot adrenaline into my soul and caused me to be encouraged, to be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might.
Go through them, too, pausing after each verse and think about it. See how our Lord God in His BIGNESS and GREATNESS can zero in on each one of us attentively and intimately.
1O Eternal One, You have explored my heart and know exactly who I am;
2 You even know the small details like when I take a seat and when I stand up again.
Even when I am far away, You know what I’m thinking.3 You observe my wanderings and my sleeping, my waking and my dreaming,
and You know everything I do in more detail than even I know.4 You know what I’m going to say long before I say it.
It is true, Eternal One, that You know everything and everyone.5 You have surrounded me on every side, behind me and before me,
and You have placed Your hand gently on my shoulder.6 It is the most amazing feeling to know how deeply You know me, inside and out;
the realization of it is so great that I cannot comprehend it.7 Can I go anywhere apart from Your Spirit? Is there anywhere I can go to escape Your watchful presence?
8 If I go up into heaven, You are there. If I make my bed in the realm of the dead, You are there.
9 If I ride on the wings of morning,if I make my home in the most isolated part of the ocean,
10 Even then You will be there to guide me; Your right hand will embrace me, for You are always there.
11 Even if I am afraid and think to myself, “There is no doubt that the darkness will swallow me,the light around me will soon be turned to night,”
12 You can see in the dark, for it is not dark to Your eyes. For You the night is just as bright as the day. Darkness and light are the same to Your eyes.
13 For You shaped me, inside and out. You knitted me together in my mother’s womb long before I took my first breath.
14 I will offer You my grateful heart, for I am Your unique creation, filled with wonder and awe. You have approached even the smallest details with excellence; Your works are wonderful; I carry this knowledge deep within my soul.
15 You see all things; nothing about me was hidden from You. As I took shape in secret, carefully crafted in the heart of the earth before I was born from its womb.
16 You see all things; You saw me growing, changing in my mother’s womb; Every detail of my life was already written in Your book; You established the length of my life before I ever tasted the sweetness of it.
17 Your thoughts and plans are treasures to me, O God! I cherish each and every one of them! How grand in scope! How many in number!
18 If I could count each one of them, they would be more than all the grains of sand on earth. Their number is inconceivable! Even when I wake up, I am still near to You.
If we think and say, “Who cares?”, think again! We have a Heavenly Father Who is a Father even to the fatherless, Who loves us deeply and loves each one uniquely. His Word says, “Pour out all your worries and stress upon Him and leave them there, for He always tenderly cares for you.” (1 Peter 5:7 TPT) Many times, we cast our cares upon the Lord but when we leave His presence, we carry the same cares with us and worry with the same things. May we learn to leave our concerns with God and trust Him that He is able to do exceedingly beyond what we can ever think of and take with us what He has spoken to us in our prayer closets.
Jesus suffered excessively until His body was beyond recognition and died a criminal’s death at the cross though He knew NO SIN. “For God made the only One who did not know sin to become sin for us so that we who did not know righteousness might become the righteousness of God through our union with Him.” (2 Corinthians 5:21 TPT)
Our being the righteousness of God in Christ by faith, believing His finished work at the cross, allows us to have right standing with God. The wonder of having an eternal and internal access before His presence, face to face and heart to heart with Him, to be comforted, strengthened, healed, guided and provided for with ALL things that pertains to our life and godliness is attainable and made possible. Our union and harmony with the King of kings and Lord of lords, Jesus Christ, is the greatest blessing we can ever think of and be gratefully thankful for for IN HIM ALL THINGS CONSIST.
The Holy Spirit is the present-day Godhead Who is taking up residence and abiding in us forever. It is He Who helps us make manifest and make real in our lives all the promises of God that are Yes and Amen!
“But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you.” (John 14:26)
Prayer: Heavenly Father, thank You for giving us Your begotten and beloved Son Jesus Christ, for whosoever believes in Him will have and enjoy life and have it more abundantly, let alone eternally. Thank You, Jesus, for laying Your life down for us. I invite You to come and live in me. Show Yourself strong to me that I may know what it means to live a good and satisfying life. Holy Spirit, help me to know Jesus more deeply that I may make Him known with the way I live my life, not by might nor by power, but by Your presence and power alone. Amen!
Behold, I Am With You Always! -JESUS 