Personal Revival Series

Personal Revival – A Life Blessed By God

Psalm 1

A young man was learning to be a paratrooper. Before he was about to make his first jump, he was given these instructions.

1. Jump when you are told.

2. Count to ten and pull the ripcord.

3. In the unlikely event your chute doesn’t open, pull the emergency ripcord.

4. When you get down, a truck will be there to take you back to the airfield.

The young soldier memorized these instructions and climbed aboard the plane. The plane climbed to 10,000 feet, and the paratroopers began to jump. When the young soldier was told to jump, he jumped just like he was told. Then, he counted to ten and pulled the ripcord. Nothing happened. His chute failed to open. So, remembering his instructions, he proceeded to pull the emergency ripcord. Again, nothing happened. Now, he was a bit frustrated. “Oh great,” he thought. “I suppose the truck won’t be there when I get down either!”

Have you ever had days like this paratrooper when you thought that nothing would ever go right? I’m talking about those days where everything seems to be working against you, and the hands of the clock seem to never go forward. I’m talking about those days where you feel like the whole world is against you. I’m talking about the days where you feel weak and weary, and God seems so very far away. The funny thing about these kinds of days is that they seem to multiply. As soon as you have one, they seem to keep coming and coming. Pretty soon, it feels like you have more of these blah and bad days than you do good ones.

God never promised us that all the days on earth would be good. In fact in Ephesians, we are told that the days are evil. So, what do we do with these evil days? What kind of hope do we have? We have the hope that God will be with us every step of the way, and we have the promise that he wishes to bless us. These blessings will cause a revival in our hearts that will help us to weather any storm. However, with most Biblical promises, we must look at the conditions that must be met in order for it to come about. Turn with me to Psalm 1 as we read the Scripture this morning.

1 Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked or stand in the way of sinners or sit in the seat of mockers. 2 But his delight is in the law of the LORD, and on his law he meditates day and night. 3 He is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither. Whatever he does prospers. 4 Not so the wicked! They are like chaff that the wind blows away. 5 Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous. 6 For the LORD watches over the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish.

Let’s take a look at three actions we must take to live a life blessed by God from this Scripture. Before we begin, let’s pray and ask the Holy Spirit to be real in our lives this morning.

Action #1: We Must Separate Ourselves From The World

Last year at about this time, I was very unhappy with one part of my life. I was getting heavier and heavier, and there did not seem to be much I could do about it. As I came near 300 pounds, I decided that I needed to take action. I needed to go on a diet.

Picking a diet was not very hard for me. The only one that seemed appealing in any way was the Atkins’ Diet. Why was this appealing? I guess it was because I could still eat almost all my favorite foods (meat and more meat), and there were no limits on portions. I decided to give it a try and lost almost 60 pounds with relative ease. The hardest part for me however, was finding something I liked to drink without sugar.

Before my diet, my two favorite drinks were Pepsi and Iced Tea, and when I talk about iced tea, I mean a super sweet drink with a bit of tea flavor. I love the sweet tea you get when you travel down south. Now, since I was to keep sugar to a bare minimum, these two drinks would not do. I started to drink Diet Pepsi which was gross at first, but now I love it. I can’t even drink the regular stuff much anymore. But, finding a substitute for sweet tea proved to be much more difficult. I tried many brands of diet iced tea until I settled on one that filled the void. Lipton makes a diet ice tea that comes in the form of a powder that contains no sugar and still tastes fairly good. All you need to do is take a spoonful of the powder and add it to a glass of water. Then, you stir it up and you have a glass of tea. When the powder hits the water, it changes the color, taste, and smell of the water. Nothing about the water is still the same. A little bit of this powder changes everything about the water.