Psalm 41:1-3:
1BLESSED (HAPPY, fortunate, to be envied) is he who considers the weak and the poor; the Lord will deliver him in the time of evil and trouble. 2The Lord will protect him and keep him alive; he shall be called blessed in the land; and You will not deliver him to the will of his enemies. 3The Lord will sustain, refresh, and strengthen him on his bed of languishing; all his bed You [O Lord] will turn, change, and transform in his illness.
These verses cover the promises of what God will do for someone who will consider the poor! "Consider" is the Hebrew word, "sakal", which means: to give attention to, to wisely understand, to act wisely, to cause to prosper. When we pay attention to the poor and needy for the purpose of helping them to prosper and have a better life, then God will do all of these things for us! What wonderful promises! He will protect us, keep us alive, deliver us from trouble, evil and our enemies, bless us in the land, sustain, refresh and strengthen us, and overturn and overthrow sickness and illness from us! Our motives for helping the poor and needy should be because it is pleasing to God because they belong to Him! The rewards for doing so are all of these promises! What a wonderful God we serve!
In 1 Timothy 5 we will look at verses 17-18:
17Let the elders who perform the duties of their office well be considered doubly worthy of honor [and of adequate financial support], especially those who labor faithfully in preaching and teaching. 18For the Scripture says, You shall not muzzle an ox when it is treading out the grain, and again, The laborer is worthy of his hire.
This is referring to the "elders that rule", which would be the Pastor and his Associates. They are the ones who do the studying and praying so that they have something from the Holy Spirit to teach and train the people. These verses say that these ministers are worthy of DOUBLE honor! "Honour" here is the Greek word, "time", which means: a value, money paid, esteem of the highest degree! So DOUBLE that! You know how the world likes to SUPER-SIZE everything? Well, this is one instance when it is highly appropriate! Make sure that YOU are being a blessing to your Pastor and those that he has chosen to teach you the Word! Being a doer of THIS Word will make a significant impact on YOUR prosperity and every area of your life! AMEN!
One very important lesson that we can learn from all of these accounts in 2 Chronicles of the kings and their lives lived either for good or for evil, is to be consistent! Some of these kings did "right in the sight of the Lord" for a time, but then slipped right back into the world's way of doing things! Find out what God wants done and how He wants it done, then consistently do these good things every day! Don't allow yourself any leeway when it comes to obeying God! If you miss it, and you WILL, then pick yourself up, use 1 John 1:9, and get right back to it! Your rewards in Heaven will be GREAT and your blessings in THIS life won't be too bad either!
Shalom in Him!
