The Blessing Qualifier

The most monumental decision we can ever make is to accept the gift of salvation and eternal life through Jesus; but as great as that blessing is, it does not guarantee blessing throughout our lives.  The assumption of blessing usually comes from the profound contrast between our old life and our new life in Christ. However, most scriptures on blessings contain “if-then” clauses similar to Psalm 128:1-2. “Blessed are all who fear the Lord, who walk in obedience to him. ² You will eat the fruit of your labor; blessings and prosperity will be yours.” This scripture has two qualifiers: practicing the fear of the Lord and being obedient to God’s Word.  If our expectations of blessing do not include obedience to qualifiers, we will be disappointed.  Since many of us inadvertently overlook this fact, we tend to believe we’ve been unjustly targeted.

David as a man after God’s own heart definitely had his share of hardships, many actually unjust.  He was hunted by King Saul because Saul was jealous and fearful of David.  Even when Saul died and David stepped into the Kingship as ordained by God, it took seven years for 10 of the 12 Israelite tribes to officially make him their leader.  He constantly put his life on the line fighting the Philistines to save countrymen who didn’t recognize his leadership.  Though David’s life was difficult, he never wavered in his devotion to God, and never blamed God for the difficulties.  God used all the adverse situations in David’s life to instruct and mold him into the man God had created him to be.

God, Who does not change, is doing the same kind of work in us today.  He uses the adversity we encounter to focus our attention where He wants to change sinful desires of our flesh and heal wounds from our past, bringing us freedom.  God is always gentle in His work unless we choose to ignore Him.  Then His love will bring the message again more forcefully.  We can be assured that wherever God allows enemy schemes to work against us, He has already purposed to use and redeem it.  No one could have imagined that the condemnation of Jesus, a sinless man in His human form, to death on a cross would produce salvation for the world.  Similarly, we are better off for the crisis than without it, and will hopefully move towards God by doing a ruthless self-inventory to discover what He knows we’ve been hiding from ourselves. While this is a painful process, it is the good pain of cleaning out an infection so that healing can commence.

Although it is tempting to run away, we must understand that embracing the pain is the path to becoming Jesus’ disciple.  “Then Jesus said to his disciples, “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. ²⁵ For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for Me will find it.” (Matthew 16:24-25)  In the most amazing way, blessing comes through carrying our crosses daily, crucifying our flesh and receiving Jesus’ healing in our wounds.  Thus the “if” qualifiers are met, allowing the blessing of peace, intimacy, and victorious life in Christ.  “The blessing of the Lord brings [true] riches, And He adds no sorrow to it [for it comes as a blessing from God].” (Proverbs 10:22 AMP) How much do we want God’s blessing?