Beloved: grace, mercy and peace be yours from God our Father and Jesus Christ our Lord. It is with great joy that I welcome you into another week of the month of March 2020. And I pray that your life will be cleansed of everything that is keeping you back from experiencing the fullness of God’s blessings, in Jesus’ name. Amen.
According to the bible, God has blessed all of us who believe in Christ Jesus with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms in Him (Eph 1:3). So, we have been chosen and ordained by Him to live overwhelmingly blessed lives. But are we fully enjoying these blessings? Are we fully enjoying His blessings of favour, good health, prosperity, joy, peace, self-control, patience and so forth? Is it even evident in our lives that we are blessed of God?
But it ought to be evident to those of the world that we are blessed of God. I mean that they ought to daily see through us what it means to blessed of God, what it means to have Him as one’s Father. For example, we are told in the bible that Potiphar, Joseph’s Egyptian master, was able to see that God was with him and was making him successful in all that he did. In other words, he could tell that Joseph was not walking alone; he had the living God walking with him and making his life a very blessed one (Gen 39:2-6). Interestingly, it was a similar thing that Laban learnt about Joseph’s father, Jacob, when he was with him. He said to him on one occasion, “I have learnt by experience (signs) that God has blessed me because of you.” (Cf. Gen 30:27)
So, the presence of God’s blessings in and on our lives ought to be pronounced and conspicuous. People should be able to say that our lives are orderly, prosperous and full of the fruit of the Spirit because God’s blessings are at work in us. At least, when people are operating under certain curses, we often can tell, regardless of how rich or influential they may be. We can tell that their lives are worn-out or out of place because certain negative influences are at work in them.
In like manner, the workings of God’s blessings cannot be hidden. In other words, if His blessings are truly at work in us, those around us will be able to tell. If this, then, is not the case, we need to find out why. We are blessed of God already, unless we are not Christians. So, we should be enjoying these blessings to the full. And if we are not enjoying them, we ought to find out why.
Now, of course, the problem can never be with God. It is always with us. We are always the ones doing something that will hinder the flow of the blessings or not doing something that will make His blessings freely flow. For instance, from what we see in the bible, one major thing that kept the children of Israel that Moses brought out of Egypt from entering and possessing the Promised Land was unbelief. The bible actually declares in no uncertain terms that they could not enter God’s rest because of unbelief (Heb 3:19). But they were brought out of Egypt so that they could enter that land that was flowing with milk and honey. And they experienced the wonders of God both in Egypt and in the wilderness so that they would be full inheritors of that land. Nevertheless, the bible says God was not pleased with most of them. So, He caused their bodies to be scattered over the desert during a period of forty years (1Cor 10:1-5).
But why was God not pleased with the same people He delivered from Egypt? Why was He displeased enough with them to keep them from going into the land He had promised them and enjoying it? Paul says one major reason is unbelief. They did not believe that God was able to deliver on His promises. And that cost most of them their place in the Promised land. But unbelief wasn’t the only reason. As Paul shows us in a letter of his, there other reasons as well. Some of them did not make it into the Promised Land because of idolatry, sexual immorality, grumbling, lack of contentment or rebellion against authority. And the apostle says we are to learn from what happened to these people, so that we too will not be denied of the full experience and enjoyment of God’s blessings because of our own errors. (Cf. 1Cor 10:1-11)
So, as we begin this new week, ask the Lord to open your eyes to see whatever wrong thing in your own life that is preventing you from fully enjoying His blessings that have been generously poured out on us. And you can be sure that He will answer you. But if you already know what wrong things you are involved in, don’t boast in them or act as though you did not know that these things are present in your life (James 3:14). Instead, admit your wrongs and repent of them quickly. Otherwise whatever you are still experiencing of God’s blessings may soon enough be taken away from you. And then you will begin to understand what it means to function without the goodness of God. May things never come to that for you, in Jesus’ name. Amen.
Do have a splendid week.
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