God Blesses, Provides and Restores

This morning as I was praying and asking the Lord what I should read, and I felt led to these different verses:

2 Chronicles 31:4-10 NIV
He ordered the people living in Jerusalem to give the portion due the priests and Levites so they could devote themselves to the Law of the Lord. [5] As soon as the order went out, the Israelites generously gave the firstfruits of their grain, new wine, olive oil and honey and all that the fields produced. They brought a great amount, a tithe of everything. [6] The people of Israel and Judah who lived in the towns of Judah also brought a tithe of their herds and flocks and a tithe of the holy things dedicated to the Lord their God, and they piled them in heaps. [7] They began doing this in the third month and finished in the seventh month. [8] When Hezekiah and his officials came and saw the heaps, they praised the Lord and blessed his people Israel. [9] Hezekiah asked the priests and Levites about the heaps; [10] and Azariah the chief priest, from the family of Zadok, answered, “Since the people began to bring their contributions to the temple of the Lord, we have had enough to eat and plenty to spare, because the Lord has blessed his people, and this great amount is left over.”

Genesis 31:4-9 NIV
So Jacob sent word to Rachel and Leah to come out to the fields where his flocks were. [5] He said to them, “I see that your father’s attitude toward me is not what it was before, but the God of my father has been with me. [6] You know that I’ve worked for your father with all my strength, [7] yet your father has cheated me by changing my wages ten times. However, God has not allowed him to harm me. [8] If he said, ‘The speckled ones will be your wages,’ then all the flocks gave birth to speckled young; and if he said, ‘The streaked ones will be your wages,’ then all the flocks bore streaked young. [9] So God has taken away your father’s livestock and has given them to me.

2 Kings 8:1-6 NIV
Now Elisha had said to the woman whose son he had restored to life, “Go away with your family and stay for a while wherever you can, because the Lord has decreed a famine in the land that will last seven years.” [2] The woman proceeded to do as the man of God said. She and her family went away and stayed in the land of the Philistines seven years. [3] At the end of the seven years she came back from the land of the Philistines and went to appeal to the king for her house and land. [4] The king was talking to Gehazi, the servant of the man of God, and had said, “Tell me about all the great things Elisha has done.” [5] Just as Gehazi was telling the king how Elisha had restored the dead to life, the woman whose son Elisha had brought back to life came to appeal to the king for her house and land. Gehazi said, “This is the woman, my lord the king, and this is her son whom Elisha restored to life.” [6] The king asked the woman about it, and she told him. Then he assigned an official to her case and said to him, “Give back everything that belonged to her, including all the income from her land from the day she left the country until now.”

I would say the common theme is the Lord's ability to bless and provide, even in difficult circumstances, or times when one is being treated unjustly. The Lord can and will provide for us, regardless of the circumstances. He can and will arrange circumstances to favor us, to bless us and to restore us. He desires to be our refuge and place of rest. He guides us and directs us. He is a God who delights in blessing His sons and daughters.

David knew God's character and so he prayed in Psalm 31:1-5 NIV
"In you, Lord, I have taken refuge; let me never be put to shame; deliver me in your righteousness. [2] Turn your ear to me, come quickly to my rescue; be my rock of refuge, a strong fortress to save me. [3] Since you are my rock and my fortress, for the sake of your name lead and guide me. [4] Keep me free from the trap that is set for me, for you are my refuge. [5] Into your hands I commit my spirit; deliver me, Lord, my faithful God."