THE BLESSING OF GOD MAKETH RICH AND ADDETH NO SORROW
THE BLESSING OF GOD – MAKETH RICH AND ADDETH NO SORROW
The blessing of Jehovah, it maketh rich, and he addeth no sorrow to it. Proverbs 10:22 (Darby Bible Translation)
There are general blessings that all receive as God causes the rain to fall and the sun to shine on the just and the unjust. It is God’s intent to bless us. I totally agree with this comment from one of the sermons I referenced yesterday:
“God has the desire to bless us, rather than curse us. We know and serve a good and gracious God. He is not vindictive, perverted, licentious, or in need to be appeased. Jehovah, the God of the Bible, is loving, kind, holy, true, long-suffering, and gracious. He longs to bring His people into the promised land, a land of blessing, flowing with milk and honey. He is a good God who wants only the best for His children.”
God’s blessings do not always look like blessings though. Some of them are disguised. They are pearls couched in the shell of an oyster. It is these kinds of blessing that most folk would find hard to unwrap and discover the nugget of gold hidden away. Since we all operate for the most part on “nowsight” we judge based on our senses, what we see. To access a blessing 'differently wrapped' God would have to give us Divine insight to correctly interpret events.
Initially, back in 2003 when I started this mysterious weight loss I was perturbed and even shed a few tears at the doctor when I realized I had lost even more weight since the last visit. When I prayed about my course and got clear Divine direction, my thinking changed as it was a “ it is done while it is being done stance” I took. The very first and real blessing was a complete trust and reliance on God which had room for expansion and growth.
To be able to trust God and have faith in Him, His character and His good will for your life is not to be taken for granted. I think that many people even though they are ‘okay’ Christians lack the ability to let go on themselves and trust God. You cannot hold on to self and fears and trust God at the same time. While God does all in His power to encourage our trust in Him as being capable, reliable and worthy of our complete surrender and submission to His will, there will always be room for doubt. Why? We need to always have free will to choose whether to doubt or to trust.
But I would say once you make that initial step of trust, God lights your way ahead, one step at a time. We draw down the blessings of God through our obedience: “And all these blessings shall come on thee and overtake thee, if thou shalt hearken unto the voice of the lord thy God” Deut 28:2
It is to be inferred that we can actually hear God speaking to us. ( not audibly, but through providence, wiser counsellors, impressions from the Spirit etc, but in tandem, not a one off thing) The very best way to hear God is in the context of an ongoing relationship with Him. So, am I saying that the only way you can hear God is if you are in a relationship with Him? No, of course not. God also speaks to those He wants to draw to Himself, those whose lives have got all messed up in one way or another and secretly they want a way out, they want something better than what they now have.
A real blessing is to know when it is God speaking and to follow the way He is leading, even if His instructions seem strange and illogical. If we take the attitude that God must explain everything to us first, dot every I and cross every T, before we move, we will never walk in the destiny God has planned for us.
Though part of God’s leading is to bring us into positions to develop our character and to teach us and deepen us in ways that would not be otherwise be possible, this cannot be seen at the start of your adventure. If you are reading or you have read my book, you will note that I have used the word ‘adventure’ to describe my experiences with God.
The blessings in a journey with God cannot be seen at the outset but are realized and even intensified as the journey progresses. This is a text that I only took note of in the last few years. Much can be extrapolated from it. Before I share the text with you, let me say that it is our human nature to look to people, whoever they may be, to direct us and tell us what to do. But as much as folk love you, they cannot bless you or make you profit, in the fullest sense of the word. That alone is God’s prerogative. I never asked the two persons closest to me, my mother and husband, what they thought I should do. I went to God in prayer as was my custom over many many years and asked Him for His take on the matter.
A life of prayer is a life of blessing. And prayer is really a heart to heart conversation with God. I must be honest and say that at times it seems that we have turned it into a boring, unattractive, castor oil drinking and spinach eating experience. My goodness! We got de young people running from these long boring cliché prayers that get churned out…aw well. That was a digression.
But to succinctly say: Prayer is what connects you to God and once you have heard Him and you know, that you know, that you have heard him, you do not have to be concerned about who says what because your confidence is in God. Neither my Mum nor my husband ever questioned my decision and neither have they ever had need for trepidation.
So what is the text? “Thus saith the Lord, thy Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel; 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:” Isaiah 48:17-18 KJV
Let me pull out and juxtapose these two sentences from Deuteronomy 28 and Isaiah 48: “ if thou shalt hearken unto the voice of the lord thy God” and “O that thou hadst hearkened to my commandments”. One word is common: the word hearken. So one text says if you obey, this and that would happen. The other text presupposes that you did not obey and it is with a certain measure of pathos that God says if only you had obeyed then you would have been so blessed.
In critical matters as we have to make choices and we do not have foresight to see the repercussions of our actions, we need to admit our ignorance and ask God for his help. I firmly believe that God blesses you where He has placed you. While people may be " cursing" you, God is so abundantly blessing you. The Bible says He prepares a table for you in the presence of your enemies. it is a table of blessing and amazingly, this is done in the 'valley of the shadow of death.' it is amazing how the Bible synchronizes ideas.
Have you checked the chapter in my book Blessed in the Land of famine? If you have not done so, please do.
There are blessings galore in trusting God, to the very last day of our life on this earth and on that day He also has blessings reserved.
I sure encourage you to release yourself to God in the way He shows you how to do it. You cannot possibly lose. It will always be a win win situation!!
Next set of posts I want to chit chat about Blessings and your mouth, blessings as it relates to health, can we be blessed in presumption and, personal blessings received. There is so much swirling around in my head. I mean to say I was writing those prayer letters from 2003 to 2011 so I feel like a huge artesian well….bubbling. This blog gives me room to overflow. I do not know who is reading except they reveal it but if it is two persons, it does not matter because I know these words are not falling to the ground and will find the right ears at the right time!!