Rejecting A Blessing - Dinner #58

     We say it aloud during tearful farewells and  joyful occasions . . . We write it at the end of letters . . . “God Bless!”  How DOES the Lord bless us? With provisions, with safety, with good health, with children . . . When we pray, “Lord, please bless our marriage!” or “Lord, please bless our family!”, do we really mean it?  Is it possible that God might WANT to bless us, but that we are in some way REJECTING the blessing?!  

    For about the first six months of married life, my husband and I paid our bills, bought our groceries and our gas, and then gave to the church “as we were able”.  Things didn’t work out so well that way, and again and again, we felt guilty.  There just wasn’t enough “left over” for the Lord!  We both knew what the Bible teaches about giving by faith, but it can be very hard to do when you’re first starting out, and just trying to keep a roof over your heads! A new year came around, and we determined that we would give FIRST, and trust the Lord to take care of us.  Do you know what we saw happen? We saw God stretch our groceries further than ever before! We saw God give enough gas every week to keep us from running out!  We saw God provide insurance coverage that paid for the delivery of our baby girl! And the list goes on and on . . . Malachi 3:10 “Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house, and prove me now herewith, saith the LORD of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it.”  The Lord truly keeps His Word!  He was more than ready to bless us - we just needed to trust Him more!  Are you forgoing tithing, and missing out on a blessing?

     Our Heavenly Father does not only bless financially.  He also blesses with babies! Psalm 127:3 “Lo, children are an heritage of the LORD: and the fruit of the womb is his reward.” Do you know what the sad thing is? This, perhaps more than any other blessing, is one that Christians say they'd, "rather not have."  God says, “I want to reward and bless your marriage, by giving you children.”  God’s people say, “We’re going to do all we can, with whatever the world has to offer, to ensure that doesn’t happen.”  God says, “But I have plans for your family. Plans to use you in a mighty way.” God’s people say, “We have our own plans.  Only so many children, spaced only so many years apart. No more, no less.  We can’t handle more than that.”  God doesn’t bless where He will not provide! Don’t you know that He will take care of you? That He will strengthen you? That He will enable you? Proverbs 10:22 “The blessing of the LORD, it maketh rich, and he addeth no sorrow with it.” Children are not a mixed curse-blessing! It is the world that has caused us to view them that way!  God’s description of a blessed man is one who has a growing family! Psalm 128:3-4 “Thy wife shall be as a fruitful vine by the sides of thine house; thy children like olive plants round about thy table. Behold, that thus shall the man be blessed that feareth the LORD.”  When Job was being doubly blessed by God, at the end of all his trials, God gave him more children! Job 42:12-13 “So the LORD blessed the latter end of Job more than his beginning . . . He had also seven sons and three daughters.”  Are children a blessing you are currently rejecting?

     God’s special will for us is a path that is blessed!  In Matthew 23:37, the Lord Jesus laments, “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem . . . how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not!” Is there some way that God wishes to bless you, but you aren’t obeying His voice? Isaiah 48:17-18 “. . . I am the LORD thy God which teacheth thee to profit, which leadeth thee by the way that thou shouldest go. O that thou hadst hearkened to my commandments! Then had thy peace been as a river, and thy righteousness as the waves of the sea.” What tremendous blessing could YOU be missing out on?

     Who is to say that one blessing is greater than someone else’s? ALL blessings from God are heavenly blessings!  There are some whom God desires to bless with more financial security than others . . . There are some whom God desires to bless with more children than others . . . There are some whom God desires to bless with more good health than others . . . But God lovingly desires to bless EACH AND EVERY ONE of His children! Are you a Christian lady who likes to “pick and choose” your own blessings? Or does your heart anxiously desire every single blessing that THE LORD desires to send your way? Please do not reject God’s blessings to you!  May you have a heart that is ready to RECEIVE them! 

Personal and Spiritual Growth - Dinner #57

     Brandon and I smile and laugh, when we replay camcorder footage of our little girl.  At the point where our latest “Home DVD” begins, she couldn’t even sit up by herself, yet.  She hadn’t learned to crawl forward.  She was just getting the hang of eating pureed baby food. Now her 1-year birthday is only four weeks away! She has grown, and developed, and changed SO MUCH since that night we first held her in our arms! As I think about this, I have to ask myself, how much growing have I done, as a woman, during that same amount of time? Am I any stronger spiritually, wiser mentally, or happier emotionally, for having lived this past year?  Are you?  Having a weekly “goal chart” has helped me IMMENSELY, this year! I’m getting to feel as though I’m DOING SOMETHING with my life! Nevertheless, despite a lot of checkmarks in a lot of boxes, I know that I cannot do any TRUE growing AT ALL without the LORD’S help!  Not any spiritual growing, and not any personal growing, either!  

     The year 2012 is already nearly half over.  Are you seeking to grow in ALL areas of your life? Are you, perhaps, trying to exercise, prepare healthy meals, read good books, or share the Bible with others, more?  In Colossians 1:10, Paul declares that one of his prayers for the believers in Colosse was that they, “ . . . might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God.” God wants us to grow in EVERY GOOD WAY!  As Christians, we should constantly be moving FORWARD!  

     Does growth of any kind just happen overnight? No! It occurs over TIME! One hour at a time, one day at a time, one month at a time.  I have SO enjoyed being able to do some gardening, this past week! In addition to some pretty flowerbox blooms, we ended up using a few packets of seeds near the back porch, as well.  Those seeds just went in the ground a day or two ago, but I’m already finding myself impatiently looking out the window, waiting for signs of little sprouts!   It’s going to take some time! The Bible often refers to our growth as Christians, in terms of plants.  Psalm 92:12-13 tells us that, “The righteous shall flourish like the palm tree: he shall grow like a cedar in Lebanon. Those that be planted in the house of the LORD shall flourish in the courts of our God.” If you plant yourself in God’s house, hearing the preaching of God’s Word, you can grow, spiritually!  But that isn’t the end! In Mark 4:20, Jesus says, “And these are they which are sown on good ground; such as hear the word, and receive it, and bring forth fruit, some thirtyfold, some sixty, and some an hundred.”  They DO something with what they have received!  They hear God’s Word, receive it, and then BRING FORTH FRUIT! Can they do all this growing on their own? In John 15:4-5, the Son of God declares, “Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me. I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing.” 

     Has 2012 marked a year of “growing” for you, thus far?  Spiritual growing is definitely more important than any personal growing we may do, but we must realize, Ladies, that NO GROWING occurs without the LORD’S HELP!  II Corinthians 10:17 “But he that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord.”  You cannot read your Bible every day without God’s help! You cannot improve your marriage without God’s help! You cannot find good bargains and save money on groceries, unless the Lord enables you to do so!  If you do any growing in good things, it is all to the glory of God!