“Faith is essential in your success. Faith is needed in almost every area of our lives: work, projects, and small business endeavors,” – Alex Cook
Whether you believe it or not, God wants to bless us. He does not just want to, He loves to! God’s heart is to lavish us with His goodness. He delights in blessing us. As a loving Father whose pleasure is to shower His children with good things, God wants us to experience the fullness of His greatness. He floods our lives with overflowing goodness that flows down from His throne of grace. He sweeps us away in His river of heavenly blessings for us to see that He’s all we’ll ever need.
The Ultimate Proof
From the moment of creation until this very day, God has been proving to us that His plans for us are indeed to prosper us, and not to harm us; that all His plans for us reveal His purpose of giving us hope—the evident hope and future of living an eternity with God in heaven. (Jeremiah 29:11)
He took upon himself all our sins and sicknesses, along with our guilt and shame, so we could be made right with God. He freely gave us the gift of salvation, granted us His righteousness, freed us from eternal death, and assured us of an eternal life with Him.
Romans 8:32 says “Since he did not spare even his own Son but gave Him up for us all, won’t he also give us everything else?” Clearly, the Bible is teeming with scriptures that affirm the truth that God wants to bless us. And if we could only set our minds that a great God was able to sacrifice and give His all to us, then it would be easier to acknowledge God’s innate desire to bestow every good thing upon us.
More than Just Feelings
Still, some of us may find it hard to reconcile this truth with our conflicting emotions. We know that Christ’s death unboxed an amazing package of God’s most precious blessings in our lives and that we ought to be grateful. But why do we sometimes feel that we still lack? That we are not blessed? That Christ does not want to prosper us?
Because we rely so much on our emotions. We struggle putting our faith into action when we don’t feel good. We struggle believing His good promises when we are not happy. However, we need to realize that our feelings are inconsistent and unreliable. They always come and go. They always change, depending on our circumstances. And if we anchor our faith solely on our feelings, it will be difficult for us to trust God’s goodness in our lives.
We need to stop equating the word “blessed” with “happy.” Furthermore, sadness does not mean we are not blessed. Being blessed is not measured by how good or happy we feel. More so, God’s blessings are not prompted by our emotions. Whether we feel great or not, God’s goodness remains constant.
In Hebrews 13:8, we read that “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.” God never change. The very nature of Jesus is unchangeable and this includes all of His attributes. Therefore, we can trust that even if our feelings come and go, God will still be faithful in extending His goodness to us. No matter how we feel, we must rest in the truth that God is good—all the time.
Not Just About Money
Another reason why we tend to doubt God’s desire to bless us is our shallow understanding of the concept of blessing. How do we define blessing? It’s sad to know that some of us think that a blessed life means having money and more of it. We think that those with plenty of money are the blessed ones because they can buy anything and everything they want. Some of us may even envy other people when we hear about how financially stable or successful they are and we wonder why God doesn’t bless us the same way. This kind of thought makes us prey to the traps of discontent, greed, and materialism.
If we look in the Bible, Jesus never said “Blessed are the rich, for they shall see God.” or “Blessed are those with plenty of money for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” Instead, He always used intangible qualities such as meekness, purity, and humility to describe those who are called blessed (Matthew 5).
Hence, God’s blessings are not defined by money and material things. Money is a blessing from God, but it does not comprise the entirety of God’s abundant goodness. Financial blessing is just the tip of the iceberg. There is so much more that God has in store for us and wants to give us, but oftentimes, we settle for the lesser things. If we think that money is the most important thing in the world, and that it’s the greatest blessing we can ever receive from God, then we got the concept of blessing all wrong.
Jesus Christ did not die on the cross just so we could swim i poolns of money. He selflessly gave up his life so we can experience the incomparable blessing of being reconciled with God and the blessing of His presence in our lives.
Count and Give Thanks
“In everything, give thanks, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.”– 1 Thessalonians 5:18
If we really want to convince ourselves that God is good and see how the Lord has greatly blessed us, we need to practice being grateful. When was the last time we thanked God for the simple yet important things that He has blessed us with?
We are so busy complaining, grumbling, and comparing our situation with other people that we forget how to count our blessings. We waste our energy sulking at all the unpaid bills piling up that we fail to realize that we still have so many things to be grateful for—the fact that we are still alive is one.
We must cultivate an attitude of gratitude. Every day, let’s challenge ourselves to think of things or situations that we can thank God for. By doing so, we magnify God’s goodness in our lives and we lessen our tendency to complain and compare.
As Christians who have been receivers of God’s amazing love and grace, let us constantly remind ourselves that we have received the greatest blessing that we can ever possess. Jesus Christ is our greatest reward. He is our greatest blessing. He is the pearl of great price and those who find him will find life in its fullest. May we always remember that a life apart from God is empty, but a life with Jesus is always blessed beyond measure.
“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places.” – Ephesians 1:3
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