Bible.com.au: Reading Plan - Blessings

Series Introduction:

A much-loved old hymn is ‘Count your blessings’. I doubt if it ever gets sung these days as it has a somewhat maudlin tune. In spite of that it has wonderful words. In particular, the chorus:

Count your many blessings
Name them one by one
And it will surprise you
What the Lord has done

It’s the end of summer, and most of us have hopefully had some time off somewhere. Often in these times, one is touched afresh by the many blessings we enjoy in common with all people, and as people of faith in particular. If we count our blessings, we are much more likely to be thankful people.

Each day we’re going to look at a blessing that we enjoy in life. We’re going to name them one by one! Let God surprise you!

Reflection: Blessing One – Breath

Human life comes into being and continues because we have breath. The testimony of Scripture is that when God made humankind, he gave them breath and they came alive. It is often said when someone dies, they have drawn their last breath. At present thousands of people around the world are on ventilators in order to breathe, as a result of contracting the COVID-19 virus.

As we go through our lives, we breathe in and we breathe out. We do this around 22,000 times per day. For some, it is just a mechanical action reflecting the randomness of our existence. As Brian Cox (Physicist and Documentary Presenter) said last year, “the confluence of conditions needed to create life seems so random, it is astonishing it happened at all.”

For us as believers it is a continuous reminder, both of the wonder of God’s goodness to us, but also of our vulnerability. As Psalm 150:6 says, ‘Let everything that has breath praise the Lord.’ So today let’s give thanks for breath, for life, for our existence, for the love of God in making and sustaining us, for the breath of the Holy Spirit which is enabling us to do all that we must do this day. Breathe in and breathe out, and acknowledge God as he blesses you again and again with the breath of life.

Prayer: Creator God, thank you for the breath of life which enables me to live and move and have my being. Renew me afresh, again and again this day, so I can live for you and serve you in each of the areas of my life. Amen.

Job 33:1-33

1‘But now, Job, listen to my words;

pay attention to everything I say.

2I am about to open my mouth;

my words are on the tip of my tongue.

3My words come from an upright heart;

my lips sincerely speak what I know.

4The Spirit of God has made me;

the breath of the Almighty gives me life.

5Answer me then, if you can;

stand up and argue your case before me.

6I am the same as you in God’s sight;

I too am a piece of clay.

7No fear of me should alarm you,

nor should my hand be heavy on you.

8‘But you have said in my hearing –

I heard the very words –

9“I am pure, I have done no wrong;

I am clean and free from sin.

10Yet God has found fault with me;

he considers me his enemy.

11He fastens my feet in shackles;

he keeps close watch on all my paths.”

12‘But I tell you, in this you are not right,

for God is greater than any mortal.

13Why do you complain to him

that he responds to no-one’s words?

14For God does speak – now one way, now another –

though no-one perceives it.

15In a dream, in a vision of the night,

when deep sleep falls on people

as they slumber in their beds,

16he may speak in their ears

and terrify them with warnings,

17to turn them from wrongdoing

and keep them from pride,

18to preserve them from the pit,

their lives from perishing by the sword.

19‘Or someone may be chastened on a bed of pain

with constant distress in their bones,

20so that their body finds food repulsive

and their soul loathes the choicest meal.

21Their flesh wastes away to nothing,

and their bones, once hidden, now stick out.

22They draw near to the pit,

and their life to the messengers of death.

23Yet if there is an angel at their side,

a messenger, one out of a thousand,

sent to tell them how to be upright,

24and he is gracious to that person and says to God,

“Spare them from going down to the pit;

I have found a ransom for them –

25let their flesh be renewed like a child’s;

let them be restored as in the days of their youth” –

26then that person can pray to God and find favour with him,

they will see God’s face and shout for joy;

he will restore them to full well-being.

27And they will go to others and say,

“I have sinned, and I have perverted what is right,

but I did not get what I deserved.

28God has delivered me from going down to the pit,

and I shall live to enjoy the light of life.”

29‘God does all these things to a person –

twice, even three times –

30to turn them back from the pit,

that the light of life may shine on them.

31‘Pay attention, Job, and listen to me;

be silent, and I will speak.

32If you have anything to say, answer me;

speak up, for I want to vindicate you.

33But if not, then listen to me;

be silent, and I will teach you wisdom.’

Blessings

Day 1 of 14

NIVUK

Job 33:4

Days

Job 33:1-33