By REV. ADREN BIVINS

Laymen Brotherhood Second Chance Outreach

We as Americans are blessed every day and we should be thankful and humble.

On July 4th as I performed the invocation at the Boat Basin, thousands of people of all ages, races, genders and backgrounds were there. As I looked up to Heaven, I said to God “thank you for the blessing.”

As the lady sang the National Anthem, and as the Pledge of Allegiance was recited, I remember looking to the sky and saying thank you God for this day, a day we have never seen before and never will see again. I also thanked God for his people as I looked out among everyone sitting so attentively. These are all blessings from our Father in Heaven.

A lot of definitions describe blessings.

Bless comes from the word “Barak,” which means to kneel and thus to bless. See Chronicles II Chapter 6:13, Psalm 95:6, Genesis 27:33, Exodus 18:10, Deuteronomy 24:8, Ruth 4:14 and Psalm 68:19.

God does not only bless men, but He also blesses women, Numbers 23:20, Psalm 109:28, Isaiah 61:9.

Persons might also bless one another, (Genesis 27:33).

In the New Testament, the word bless means fortunate or happy. Blessed appears in the New Testament 88 times. The Beatitude in Matthew 5:3-11, which was the Sermon on the Mount, began with “blessed.”

A few weeks ago, our Laymen Outreach Ministry received a blessing from the Lord through a local company. Our old van was at the point of mechanical failure, but God had an angel watching out for us, someone who I did not know. We received a 2002 van. God knew what we needed. Each and every day, I pray to the Lord to bless me so I can be a blessing to someone else. To God we give all the glory! We also thanked the company immeasurably, which gave us the van. When we get blessings, it is not about us, it is all about God and we have to keep working for the Lord.

In Genesis 12: 1-3, God told Abram he would bless him, bless those who bless him and whoever curses Abram, God would curse.

We have to be careful, how we treat a man or woman of God.

First Chronicles 16:22 tells us, touch not my anointed ones, do my prophets no harm. We need to treat everybody right, regardless of how they treat us.

The Bible tells us do not use blessings to impress others (Kings II 20:12-19).

Nehemiah 9:35 tells us not to let blessings cause us to forget God, because he is the one who made it all possible.

Another Biblical definition for blessings is happiness, favor, praise or heavenly reward.

Proverbs 10:22 tell us the blessings of the Lord bring wealth, and he added no sorry with it. Our main objective is to save souls. We are blessed each day when we wake up in the morning in our right mind. When we retire for bed each night and get a peaceful night sleep without any harm coming to us, we are blessed.

I thank the Lord for life, health and strength. Sometimes we have to have a Damascus Road experience like Saul before we can get blessed. Saul was knocked down and blinded for three days before he was blessed.

Some of our eyes are opened, but we are still spiritually blind. Sometimes we have to go through hardships in order to be blessed. God’s blessing comes with a price and that is to be obedient, work hard and sacrifice. God has no respect of persons, what he does for one; he can also do for another. God loves us with an everlasting love and wants the best for his children.

Who God blesses, no man can curse, and who God curses no man can bless.

The Rev. Adren Bivins Sr., a clergy, is the founder of Laymen Brotherhood Second Chance Outreach Center Inc., a non-profit Bainbridge organization. He can be reached by calling (229) 465-3752 or 416-0476.