“You will be blessed in the city and blessed in the country.” – Deuteronomy 28:3

H. Norman Wright wrote: “To bless generally means to speak good or to do good things for another. There are many types of blessing in Scripture. The first is the blessing God communicates to people. When God blessed Abraham by saying, “I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing” (Genesis 12:2), he was pronouncing a benediction promising His favor.

The second type of blessing is spoken by people to God. In Psalm 103:1-2, King David blesses God by saying, “Bless the Lord, 0 my soul; and all that is within me, bless His Holy name.

Bless the Lord, 0 my soul, and forget none of His benefits” (NASB). Speaking well of or expressing praise to God is blessing Him. When we bless Him, we acknowledge Him as the source for all we have. Yet another type is a blessing spoken by God or people over things. One example of this is Deuteronomy 28:4-5: “The fruit of your womb will be blessed, and the crops of your land and the young of your livestock—the calves of your herds and the lambs of your flocks. Your basket and your kneading trough will be blessed.” Even in our secular age it’s common in many coastal communities in to have annual blessing of the fleet ceremony at the beginning of each fishing season.

The fourth type of blessing is one spoken by one person to another, often invoking the name of God. When we bless someone superior to us, as when Jacob blessed Pharaoh in Genesis 47:7, the phrase suggests honoring or showing respect.”

Praise the Lord that He blesses you daily. Today in prayer, know that Jesus loves you the same – yesterday, today, and tomorrow.

“How sweet it is to learn the Savior's love when nobody else loves us! When friends flee, what a blessed thing it is to see that the Savior does not forsake us but still keeps us and holds us fast and clings to us and will not let us go!” — Charles Spurgeon

God’s Word: “Is the seed yet in the barn? Indeed, the vine, the fig tree, the pomegranate, and the olive tree have yielded nothing. But from this day on I will bless you.” – Haggai 2:19

By Peter Kennedy, Copyright 2026, Devotional E-Mail

DEVOTIONS IN PRAISE AND THANKSGIVING †

“Praise the LORD. Sing to the LORD a new song, his praise in the assembly of the saints.” – Psalm 149:1

In the Old Testament, the book of Psalms is called, in Hebrew, “The Praises.” And yet the single largest category of “praises” within it consists of laments! That is, people were bringing before God their personal pain, their experience of injustice or oppression, physical or verbal attacks, life-threatening illness, etc. Their songs are totally honest about these things. They did not pretend that everything was fine and try to look happy anyway (the way we may feel pressured to do in church). And yet, by bringing all their suffering into the presence of God, they were able to turn back to hope, praise, and even joy, because of their unshakeable faith that God was sovereign and would never abandon them. That kind of joy can cope with the pain, because it is the fruit of faith in the living God.

Consider all that the Lord is and praise Him! Today in prayer, praise Jesus for all He is.

“If you want to praise the Lord Jesus Christ, tell the people about Him.” ― Charles Spurgeon

God’s Word: “Praise the Lord! Praise the Lord from the heavens; praise him in the heights!” – Psalm 148:1

By Peter Kennedy, Copyright 2026, Devotional E-Mail

DEVOTIONS IN PRAISE AND THANKSGIVING

“‘But who are you, a human being, to talk back to God? ‘Shall what is formed say to the one who formed it, ‘Why did you make me like this?’” - Romans 9:20

In his excellent book, “Unoffendable”, Brant Hansen shares a few humorous, but sadly true, stories of people being critical of his work at a Christian music station: One day, we talked about the local forecast. “It’ll be warmer than it should be for this time of year,” I said. “Normally, the high is seventy-two, but today, a high of eighty-two.” The phone rang. CALLER: You know, I was really disappointed to hear your forecast. It’s not going to be “warmer than it should be,” because God ordains the weather, and it’s going to be exactly what He wants it to be today. Very disappointing. ME: I’m sorry you were disappointed by this. Another phone call. CALLER: I’d just like to say, I listen from 7:00 to 8:00 a.m. every morning. And it’s disappointing. ME: I’m sorry—what’s disappointing? CALLER: I have yet to hear you say anything about Tim Tebow or his father’s fantastic ministry. ME: Actually, now that I think about it, I just happened to talk about Tim Tebow on yesterday’s show, and I said something about how I appreciate his attitude when it comes to— CALLER: Yeah, but it wasn’t between 7:00 and 8:00.

Who are we to criticize the Author of the universe? Today in prayer, confess any sin of criticism and praise the Lord for He is good.

“The most insanely daring thing that any man can do, the most exceedingly foolish thing any man can do, the most desperately wicked thing that any man can do, is to reply against God, to enter into controversy with God, to criticize God, to condemn God. Yet that is what many people are doing.” - R.A. Torrey

God’s Word: “You turn things upside down, as if the potter were thought to be like the clay! Shall what is formed say to the one who formed it, ‘You did not make me’? Can the pot say to the potter, ‘You know nothing’?” - Isaiah 29:16

By Peter Kennedy, Copyright 2026, Devotional E-Mail

DEVOTIONS IN PRAISE AND THANKSGIVING †

"For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened." - Romans 1:21

Timothy Keller wrote: “Cosmic ingratitude is living in the illusion that you are spiritually self-sufficient. It is taking credit for something that was a gift. It is the belief that you know best how to live, that you have the power and ability to keep your life on the right path and protect yourself from danger. That is a delusion, and a dangerous one.

We did not create ourselves, and we can’t keep our lives going one second without his upholding power. Yet we hate that knowledge, Paul says, and we repress it. We hate the idea that we are utterly and completely dependent on God, because then we would be obligated to him and would not be able to live as we wish. We would have to defer to the one who gives us everything.”

We need to be grateful for all the Lord has given us. Today in prayer, confess any sin of ingratitude and be thankful to the Lord.



“Ingratitude is always a kind of weakness. I have never seen that clever men have been ungrateful.” – Johann Wolfgang von Goethe



God's Word: "People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy" - 2 Timothy 3:2

By Peter Kennedy, Copyright 2026, Devotional E-Mail

DEVOTIONS IN PRAISE AND THANKSGIVING †