The other day as my wife and I were getting ready for work, she asked me to get her clothes out of the dryer for her. We were both getting ready, but I stopped what I was doing and did it. The simplest gestures can be  the most powerful, especially when both husband and wife are working.

Do something simple every day to make life easier for one another. Bring him a cool beverage. Watch something that she wants to watch…with her. Iron his clothes for him. Go shopping with her.

The following four gestures can make your marriage better. Nothing deep or romantic here, but doing it will make romance come easier.

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1. HELP EACH OTHER OFTEN

2. DO WHAT COMES EASY

3. HONESTLY WORK ON WHAT’S DIFFICULT FOR YOU

4. BE PATIENT WITH WHAT’S DIFFICULT FOR ONE ANOTHER

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Following these simple tips will make each day better, and difficult days more bearable.

 1 Peter 3:1a (NKJV)

“Wives, likewise, be submissive to your own husbands…”

 1 Peter 3:7

 “Husbands, likewise, dwell with them with understanding, giving honor to the wife…”

BE BLESSTIFIED!

Praise is so powerful. And, I’m not talking about using it as a tool of manipulation to get God to bless us, but I’m talking about a powerful way to BLESS HIM.

Psalm 34:1 (NKJV)

I will bless the Lord at all times;
His praise shall continually be in my mouth.

Yes, God wants to be blessed by us, just as much as we want to be blessed by Him. How can you bless God who has all power, possesses all things and has control of all things? The same way a baby blesses a parent when he or she reaches up to them.

Why does a baby reach up to his or her parent?

To get their attention…

To be picked up…

To be hugged…

God wants our affection. Our affection is a blessing to Him. Every parent wants to be ‘loved on’ by their children.

There are few things more affectionate, more intimate, more touching, more empowering, than a well-timed hug.

Have you ever had someone give you a warm affectionate hug? Without saying one word that sincere hug said “I love you!” “I’m so glad you’re in my life!” “I appreciate you!”

A hug is a beautiful way of saying that “We are one”.

Yes, we praise God with the fruit of our lips.

Yes, we praise God in a song.

Yes, we praise God through beautiful music.

Yes, we can even praise Him with a dance…

But, there is something special about lifting our hands up to Him in praise.

Lifting up our hands (just like that baby) is almost like we’re waving to get God’s attention, “Lord! Here I am! See me!?!”

Lifting up our hands is an act of surrender and letting go of what we are holding to reach out to Him.

Lifting up our hands is stretching them forward, just as our Lord, Yeshua Jesus Christ had His hands extended and stretched when He was nailed to the cross.

Lifting up our hands toward God is an expression of affection.

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Our God so big that we can’t get our arms around Him, so it’s our way of giving Him a holy hug.

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If we are alone it’s an intimate personal hug. If we are in corporate worship, it’s a powerful group hug.

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So take some time today to love on our Heavenly Father. Lift up your hands to Him and bless Him with a Holy hug!

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Look at how we are encouraged to let go of all wrath and all doubt and lift up our holy hands to the God of our salvation.

1 Timothy 2:8 (NKJV)

I desire therefore that the men pray everywhere, lifting up holy hands, without wrath and doubting;

Give God a holy hug!

BE BLESSTIFIED!

• 

The book of Psalms is a treasure teaching us how to…

Pray,

Praise,

Lament,

Question,

And celebrate the God of our salvation.

There are Psalms for when you are laying in your bed and overwhelmed dreading facing the day.

There are Psalms for when you feel defeated.

There are Psalms for when you want to praise God but don’t know what to say.

But, Psalm 20 is a song… a prayer… an encouragement for your success.

Read it bearing in mind that you can replace any reference to animal sacrifice with the word ‘praise’.

God reminds us that praise is our sacrifice, since we are to  praise God so many times when we really are at our lowest and don’t feel like it…

Hebrews 13:15 (NKJV)

¹⁵ Therefore by Him let us continually offer the sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to His name.

Psalm 27:6  (NKJV)

⁶ And now my head shall be ^[a]lifted up above my enemies all around me; Therefore I will offer sacrifices of ^[b]joy in His tabernacle;
I will sing, yes, I will sing praises to the Lord.

I like to call this Psalm of David a Psalm for your success. It’s a Psalm for..

For our deliverance.

For our purpose.

For the desires of our heart.

For our success.

Read it.

Sing it.

Pray it.

Say it.

Release it into the atmosphere and let it minister to you. God will bring it to pass.

Psalm 20  (NKJV)

May the Lord answer you in the day of trouble;
May the name of the God of Jacob ^[a]defend you;
² May He send you help from the sanctuary,
And strengthen you out of Zion;
³ May He remember all your offerings,
And accept your burnt sacrifice. Selah

⁴ May He grant you according to your heart’s desire,
And fulfill all your ^[b]purpose.
⁵ We will rejoice in your salvation,
And in the name of our God we will set up our banners!
May the Lord fulfill all your petitions.

⁶ Now I know that the Lord saves His ^[c]anointed;
He will answer him from His holy heaven
With the saving strength of His right hand.

⁷ Some trust in chariots, and some in horses;
But we will remember the name of the Lord our God.
⁸ They have bowed down and fallen;
But we have risen and stand upright.

⁹ Save, Lord!
May the King answer us when we call.

BE BLESSTIFIED!

• 

Most of us have heard the account of Sodom and Gomorrah. God provided deliverance for Lot and his family, (Abraham’s nephew) from His judgment on those cities, but Lot and his family had responsibility in their deliverance. They had to flee the city and not look back…

Genesis 19:15-26  (NKJV)

¹⁵ When the morning dawned, the angels urged Lot to hurry, saying, “Arise, take your wife and your two daughters who are here, lest you be consumed in the punishment of the city.” ¹⁶ And while he lingered, the men took hold of his hand, his wife’s hand, and the hands of his two daughters, the Lord being merciful to him, and they brought him out and set him outside the city. ¹⁷ So it came to pass, when they had brought them outside, that ^[a]he said, “Escape for your life! Do not look behind you nor stay anywhere in the plain. Escape to the mountains, lest you be ^[b]destroyed.”

¹⁸ Then Lot said to them, “Please, no, my lords! ¹⁹ Indeed now, your servant has found favor in your sight, and you have increased your mercy which you have shown me by saving my life; but I cannot escape to the mountains, lest some evil overtake me and I die. ²⁰ See now, this city is near enough to flee to, and it is a little one; please let me escape there (is it not a little one?) and my soul shall live.”

²¹ And he said to him, “See, I have favored you concerning this thing also, in that I will not overthrow this city for which you have spoken. ²² Hurry, escape there. For I cannot do anything until you arrive there.”

Therefore the name of the city was called ^[c]Zoar.

²³ The sun had risen upon the earth when Lot entered Zoar. ²⁴ Then the Lord rained brimstone and fire on Sodom and Gomorrah, from the Lord out of the heavens. ²⁵ So He ^[d]overthrew those cities, all the plain, all the inhabitants of the cities, and what grew on the ground.

²⁶ But his wife looked back behind him, and she became a pillar of salt.

None of them really wanted to leave. They liked where they lived. God had to practically drag Lot out of the city.

When God provides deliverance for us from places we don’t need to be, we too don’t need to look back.

Don’t look twice at the picture or video or social media post.

Don’t look back at that text message. Don’t respond.

Don’t rewind that scene or that song.

Don’t tell them to repeat that.

Don’t go back there.

Some thoughts, places, pictures, messages, conversations, books, songs, videos, television shows, movies…even scents can take us our minds back to places we don’t need to be.

Remember Lot’s wife. Looking twice is looking back.

BE BLESSTIFIED!

• 

Never take for granted how clever the enemy is at trying to come between us and the God of our salvation.

He has been busy at trying to influence the lives of God’s children for thousands of years. The bible tells us that he disguises himself as an angel of light…

2 Corinthians 11:13-15  (NKJV)

¹³ For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into apostles of Christ. ¹⁴ And no wonder! For Satan himself transforms himself into an angel of light. ¹⁵ Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also transform themselves into ministers of righteousness, whose end will be according to their works.

He is a deceiver and the father of all lies…

As you may already know, the very word devil comes from the Greek word diablos meaning slanderer, accusing falsely, deceiver. Even Jesus calls him out when rebuking the religious leaders…

John 8:44  (NKJV)

⁴⁴ You are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you want to do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources,for he is a liar and the father of it.

One of his favorite methods is to use us (most of the time unintentionally) against the one’s we love.

He disguises himself inside of sincere love and good intentions. Remember how Yeshua, Christ Jesus, responded to Peter when he spoke up in what he thought was support of Jesus…

Matthew 16:21-23 (NKJV)

²¹ From that time Jesus began to show to His disciples that He must go to Jerusalem, and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised the third day.

²² Then Peter took Him aside and began to rebuke Him, saying, ^[a]“Far be it from You, Lord; this shall not happen to You!”

²³ But He turned and said to Peter, “Get behind Me, Satan! You are ^[b]an offense to Me, for you are not mindful of the things of God, but the things of men.”

Jesus didn’t even address Peter. He addressed the enemy directly.

Think of the fact that the enemy used Eve to get to Adam and Adam quickly shifted the blame to his wife…

Genesis 3:12-13  (NKJV)

¹² Then the man said, “The woman whom You gave to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I ate.”

¹³ And the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this you have done?”

The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”

Wow! So, how many times has that happened to us in our lives?

How many times has the enemy used husbands, wives, sons and daughters to distract their loved ones from their focus on God’s word?

How many times have you seen a loved one being misused and instead of telling them to turn the other cheek, you told them to retaliate?

How many times has someone been ready to speak up against sin, wrong or injustice and because of the certain backlash a loved one said, “You better leave that alone”.

How many times have we held a love one back who was maturing and growing in Christ because of the changes it would force us to make?

How many times has a loved one wanted to give help to someone in need and we discouraged them…for whatever reason?

How many times have we hurt or hated someone because they hurt or hated someone we love?

How many times has a loved one given bad advice contrary to the word of God from their flesh?

How many traditions that God has forbidden have we allowed to continue through thousands of generations because we felt we were letting our children miss out on something?

Once when I spoke up against the sin of homosexuality, a family member told me (just for the record, it was not my wife), “You better leave that subject alone because if might make some people angry and prevent your music and your ministry from being accepted”

This relative didn’t mean any harm. They made that statement out of genuine concern for me, but they were being just like Peter. God wants me to trust Him with my ministry and music despite what people may say or do.

Can you think of a time when the devil used a loved one against you? Can you think of a time you have do so?

The good news is that God has given us discernment, so the enemy doesn’t catch us by surprise…

2 Corinthians 2:11  (NKJV)

¹¹ lest Satan should take advantage of us; for we are not ignorant of his devices.

Be very careful of your ‘Peter’ moments. Don’t let the enemy use you against the people in your life.

BE BLESSTIFIED!

Okay, I admit that I have to remind myself of this quite often. If we aren’t careful, we can let Monday, or whatever day we return to work, to become oppressive. So, I just want to give you the short reminder that the 2^nd day of the week is a blessing.

Remember to let the joy of the LORD be your strength, no matter what your Monday challenges may be.

Nehemiah 8:10  (NKJV)

¹⁰ Then he said to them, “Go your way, eat the fat, drink the sweet, and send portions to those for whom nothing is prepared; for this day is holy to our Lord. Do not sorrow, for the joy of the Lord is your strength.”

Remember that we represent God’s image, His presence, His glory and His character in every environment we enter.

Colossians 3:17 (NKJV)

¹⁷ And whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him.

Remember that no matter how challenging or dysfunctional the culture, we have the power to make the ground on which we step…Holy Ground.

So, make sure you don’t allow your Monday to become Mournday!

Breathe life into every room, every interaction today. Just as complaining is contagious, so is joy.

BE BLESSTIFIED!