Exodus 23:25 – 26 ‘And ye shall serve the LORD your God, and he shall bless thy bread, and thy water; and I will take sickness away from the midst of thee. There shall nothing cast their young, nor be barren, in thy land: the number of thy days I will fulfil.’

DAILY READING; Romans 15:1-13; 1 Samuel 27-28; Psalm 70

‘Uncle Ray’s’ is the brand name of a line of food products established by Ray Jenkins. The company is rated the no. 1 snack food in America and grosses millions of dollars annually in sales.
However, Ray Jenkins’ success story is a product of God’ divine grace.
Born in poverty and a school dropout, Ray joined the Navy where he worked as a cook and learned culinary skills. By the time he left the Navy, in 1965, Ray began a business of producing snacks.
Though he met and married a God-fearing wife, Ray himself had no reverence for God and believed rather that with his own self efforts, he would succeed.
Initially his business made progress, but after a while it began to struggle financially. The harder Ray worked, the worse things got. When he eventually faced bankruptcy, Ray started drinking as an escape. One day, after drinking heavily, he stumbled into the house and started vomiting blood.
When the paramedics arrived, they told his wife he had lost about 60 percent of his blood and was not expected to live.
As she followed the ambulance to the hospital, his wife began to pray to God for a miracle.
Ray did die and his spirit left his body. Ray knew he was headed for hell, for having ignored God in his life. But as he became repentant and sorry for his past life, miraculously he felt his spirit return back into his body.
His survival amazed the doctors, and after two weeks in the hospital he was discharged. Ray made a definite decision to give God first place in his life and all his affairs. And from then on he began to see the tangible hand of God in his business and other areas of his life. The Lord gave him divine ideas that made his business to go forward, and that year he made $85,000 profit.
As Ray began investing in the promotion of God’s kingdom, his business grew rapidly. Today, he runs a successful snack food company that sells millions of bags of potato chips and other products. On the back of each bag, Ray prints his story, Scriptures and Gospel messages in honor of God who turned his life and business around.

In 2 Chronicles 15 the children of Israel were beset with troubles. However, when they entered into a covenant to seek the Lord with all their heart and with all their soul, God turned things around for them and the Lord gave them rest round about [2 Chronicles 15: 15].
Many people today are struggling from all manner of pressures, afflictions and troubles because they are trying to live life on their own terms and depend on their own strength.
But Jeremiah 17:5 says that the man who is depending on the arm of flesh and whose heart departs from God is operating under a curse. He says such a person will be like a shrub in the desert, meaning things will be dry and life will be hard.
Truly, by strength alone shall no man prevail.

To enjoy the blessings of open Heavens, we must give God first place always.
God is not ‘a’ factor for our success. God is ‘the’ factor for our success. Indeed, all the labour of man is futility without God’s input.
God is the maker of men’s destinies, and it is only through following Him that we become made in life.
Indeed life is a futile struggle without God on our side. A man could spend his entire life pursuing wealth and then lose it all in one instance to sickness, misfortune, or even death. But when we serve God and seek His kingdom first, He gives us sorrow- free riches and other blessings of life.

Exodus 23:25 – 26 says ‘And ye shall serve the LORD your God, and he shall bless thy bread, and thy water; and I will take sickness away from the midst of thee. There shall nothing cast their young, nor be barren, in thy land: the number of thy days I will fulfil.’

Our priority in life must be to serve God and advance His Kingdom. God empowers us for wealth through the revelation and application of this principle. Truly when we make serving God our priority, He in turn makes blessing us His own priority.

PRAYER: Father please help me to make You priority in all that I do. Grant me the grace to always seek first Your kingdom so that every other thing can be added unto me in Jesus Name. .
QUOTE:
The tests you are going through in life today is not for your destruction, it is for your testimony. – WORDBITE 222