The Best Benefits Package Ever!

Psalm 103:1-4

 Bless the Lord, O my soul;
And all that is within me, bless His holy name!
² Bless the Lord, O my soul,
And forget not all His benefits:
³ Who forgives all your iniquities,
Who heals all your diseases,
⁴ Who redeems your life from destruction…,

Anyone who has ever gone for a job interview is interested not only in the salary that the position pays but also in the benefits package that comes with the job. In fact, there have been people who take a lowering paying job just because the benefits package is so appealing that it offsets the lower salary.

When you receive Jesus as Savior and Lord of your life, God provides you with the most generous benefits package imaginable. In keeping with the job analogy, only on spiritual terms, you could say that a believer’s “job” is to believe what God’s Word says. The benefits which flow out of that are all-inclusive. Psalm 103:1-4 can be summed up as “We have been redeemed from the curse of the Law” (Galatians 3:13). Simply put, believers have been delivered from the curse that came upon the earth and man when Adam sinned. Your life has been restored spiritually to the “Garden of Eden” status. Note the benefits that come with this status:

He forgives all my sins. Once you receive Jesus into your life, you have no past, spiritually speaking. The Bible says you are a “new creature,” meaning your spirit was created brand new at your new birth. You are not just a patched-up, better version of yourself post-conversion. Your slate has been wiped entirely clean! Because you live in a fallen world, sin still has consequences in the natural world, but from God’s perspective, you are totally forgiven for all sins, past, present, and future.

He heals all my diseases. When Jesus was scourged at the whipping post prior to His crucifixion the stripes He bore on His back redeemed you from the curse of sickness and disease. The reason He was disfigured beyond recognition was because He bore every sickness known to man at that time and every sickness which has appeared since then, as well as any new sicknesses that may appear in the future. Because you live in a fallen world, sickness will still try to attack and may even come on your body, but you have a blood-bought right, as a child of God, to be victorious over any attack of sickness or disease.

He redeems my life from destruction (redeems me from death). Your benefits package includes protection. That does not mean that you will never face danger or even experience a life-threatening situation. In fact, in Psalm 34:19 it says, “Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivers him out of them all.” Because you live in a fallen world, dangers will confront you, but the Lord has promised to bring you through them victoriously.

The benefits package that God provides does two things for every believer. It spells out clearly the specifics of what He has redeemed His children from, and secondly, it is a continual reminder of His character – His Goodness, His Mercy, and His Grace. All believers would do well to not only remember the benefits God provides, but also the Nature of the One providing them; because the root of every attack the devil initiates is designed to get you to doubt His Goodness toward you. As long as your focus is on God’s Goodness, there isn’t enough sin, sickness, or danger in this world to defeat you!

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