Recently while
navigating the tedious, pot hole ridden streets of kampala city, I together
with my passenger got to talking about blessing. When I say got to talking I
mean that loosely. What I meant to say is that our conversation eventually
drifted like most do from topic to topic till we ended up at blessings.
Having been poor
most of my childhood and though statistically I am still part of the millions
poor I am now barely hanging onto the poverty, I have cried out many times to
God to bless me. The prayer of Jabez has been one I have read and meditated and
uttered many time. I still long for that kind of blessing.
I wondered on
how people use objects or material things as a sign of their being blessed.
Actually many times we ask that God would bless me with a car or a house or a
job. I then theorised that since cars, houses and jobs are not monopolies of
the born again maybe it would make a lot more sense to ask for something with a
lot more substance.
This stems from
my pursuit of these items and anytime I have wielded them for any great amount
of time I found that I become bored and either discarded them or got hungrier
for more. How many cars, if cars are God measure of blessing, would God have to
give you to show he really favours you? If the number is not the key then maybe
make and model. What happens after you get the latest and ‘bestest’ car german
and Italian combined genius can produce? What then? It could then maybe swing
to price and so the more expensive the better right? If you achieved this what
then would you be left with? Some argue that you probably would not get to that
point and I agree because by them you would be depressed and would have ended
your life no by driving one of your really exquisite, expensive, super fast
cars into a wall.
So if
exponential material wealth may not always mean your blessed by the Lord what
then does being blessed mean.
After an
exhaustive search and research, about 20 minutes or so, I have come to the
conclusion that blessings of which material gain is and was one of the signs
was always in response to something we did for God. Hint: its not stuff that he
does not really need.
Basically it was
in response to a life of obedience and service. In was so in the case of Jabez,
who asked that he be blessed beyond measure as a stark contrast to his name
which was really not so cool. Jabez prayed,
1 Chron 4:10
“that thine hand
might be with me, and that thou wouldest keep me from evil, that it may not
grieve me!” KJV
Blessings were
not because of the acts of obedience per se but because of obedience. Why the
semantics. Well one puts the focus on the act which down the road gives birth
to a very pharasee mentality while the other puts the focus on obedience which
then opens the floor up for the “weaK” and “meek” in faith putting the so
called spiritual giants on the same footing as the everyday people.
It also draws
the focus away from man and his actions and puts them on Christ and his Spirit,
constantly working with and in us to obey the will of God and his word.
It therefore is
not dependant on how fat your tithe or offering is or how big your sacrifice is
but on whether you did what God asked you to do. He then blessed you because of
that and because mean like signs and the world has a very limited inventory of
things that impress them he gives them the physical stuff as well.
But look in the
Word of God and see how many people had an eye on the bigger picture and what
they benefited from it. For most, like Paul, it was blessing enough that
he found forgiveness for his persecution
of the church, all the other stuff was
just a bonus. In truth, for many of us that should be blessing enough
but we seek, like Elisha’s servant, the material things more.
I don’t know
about you but I don’t want God to bless me with a car. I don’t want that to be
the biggest example of what a Divine blessing is. Four wheels and mechanics. No
I want Gods sign of a blessing to me to be those things that mostly cannot be
seen with the eye nor measured but that are fixed on the bigger picture and the
welfare of my fellow man.
Next time God is
blessing people let him throw me some patience, more love, more hope maybe even
some endurance and perseverance cause the cars
and what not will come, and even if they do not come I shall know I am
blessed because my God is bigger than a top of the range luxury car.
So God bless me
with the virtues of the God head and bless me too with a long life that I may
spend my days spreading you around…and if you want to throw in a Mercedes GL ,
I will not say no. lol.
feel free to point out the heresy...i shall promptly unfriend you hehe
