Please Pray Acts 3:26

Unto you first, having raised up His Son Jesus, sent Him to bless you in turning away every one of you from his iniquities.



Pentecost has just take place. Peter and John went up to the temple to pray as they were accustomed to doing. When they got there they met a man begging for money and Peter told him to rise up and walk and he did. Peter used this occasion to preach to the crowd about Jesus, whom the Jews had crucified only a few short weeks earlier.

He concludes his message with our scripture text for today. God raised up His Son Jesus to bless us. The whole purpose of His coming is to bless us. How are we to be blessed? Peter tells us in verse 19; we are to repent and be converted that our sins may be blotted out. Jesus gave His life on the cross to pay the penalty for your sin and mine. He died in our place. Jesus died in our place so that you and I might be able to live with Him in heaven but He also died in our place so that you and I might be able to live with Him on this earth. Jesus does not want us to die for Him; He wants us to live for Him and that is why He came. That is why God raise Him from the dead so that He might bless us and that blessing us, we might be a blessing to others.

Repentance is where God's blessings begin but that is not where they end. Look closely at our text. Peter tells us that God raised Jesus from the dead to bless us "in turning us away from our sin." Here is the key to God's blessings. God's blessings come when you and I are willing to turn from our sinful ways and turn to him and His ways for our lives. This is the founding principle of the Bible. Faith is seen in obedience to God's Word. Faith is taking God at His Word in every aspect of our lives. Faith is no compromise and no excuse; faith is believing that God is everything that He says He is and that He will do everything that He says He will do. Period. Faith is living our lives one decision at a time knowing that God's Word and His Way is the way for us to go.

When you and I are willing to turn from our iniquities and turn to the Lord, we will be blessed. God will bless us. He will fight our battles and He will bless us exceedingly abundantly more than we can ask or hope for. Peter tells us that this is why God raised Jesus from the dead.

Jesus is risen and we need to remind ourselves that because He lives we too can live today and forever. When temptation rears its ugly head, just remember that God has raised Jesus up to bless you and the only way He can do that is for you to remain faithful to Him and to remain faithful to His Word and not let sin have an occasion to rob you of God's blessing for your life! When temptation comes, please pray!