God’s blessing validates His will in our lives.
At some point in time all of us fall into this
ideological trap. The idea that God blesses us when we are “good” and somehow
curses us for “being bad” has been around since man began to struggle with sin
in his life. For some, this idea has morphed into a large religious business,
and the new method of church growth.
Motivational speakers disguised as Christian teachers would have you
believe that God wants you to be healthy, wealthy, and wise. Pastors like Joel
Osteen, have developed huge followings to their, name it and claim it
theology. Many times during stressful
periods we find ourselves questioning our own faith, or the direction of our
lives. We have been conditioned to believe that if we were in God’s will our
lives would be better. We make generic statements like, “if God’s in it He will
bless it.”
God has indeed given promises of blessing that are
tied to our behavior. Psalm 1:3, James 1:25 and a host in between seem to give
that idea. Notice that in almost every case it is tied to a strict adherence to
the biblical precepts and teachings. This is something that on our best day we
come up miserably short in. What level of “perfection” is needed to achieve
these blessing is a mystery and therein lays the problem. None of us are
deserving of God’s blessings. We could talk forever throwing up names of those
who fell miserably short only to have all the apparent blessings of God on
their lives. Abraham, not only lied about Sarah, putting her and the King in
jeopardy of committing adultery, but
received gifts (material wealth and blessings) as the result of the lie.
(Genesis 20) All of us could look to people who are publically living lives
that are contrary to God’s word, and they seem to be doing fine, while finding
those for whom the opposite is true.
Romans 9:18 gives a little better understanding. “Therefore God has
mercy on whom he wants to have mercy, and he hardens whom he wants to harden.”
God always keeps the promises he has made, and when we find one we can rest
assured in it. The flip side of the coin is that God is all sovereign. He can,
because of His ownership of us, therefore do with us as he wishes. God has
chosen a path for our lives. While it is true that God’s blessings seem to flow
best when we follow that plan, we also know that God allows us to experience
trials. Paul said, “I know how to experience need….” Phil 4:12 Our truest test
of faith is not when we abound but when it seems as though all of heaven is
shut to us and we still have faith. We have a hymn entitled “faith is the
victory”. We would do well to remember those words. The author never said faith
brings victory, but that faith in and of itself is victory.
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