Blessings of a Different Kind (some things I’m pondering right now)

Hi friends~  Do you ever think you’ve settled into something with the Lord, submitted to Him over it, only to turn right around and grab it back or go back to your old ways?  That’s what I’ve been doing lately.  I will put on His armor, stand myself behind the Shield of Faith, make up my mind to Trust God for the day, put on my garment of expressive praise (Isaiah 61:3), and head joyfully into my morning.  But at the first sign of something not “going my way”, before I can even process what’s happening, I’ve thrown off that cloak of praise and put on a heavy and burdened spirit. 

Soon, I’ll change back to praise, and then back to heaviness… over and over so many times that I remind myself of that Quick Change Act from America’s Got Talent several years ago.  It was fascinating to watch someone quickly change their outfits in the blink of an eye, but changing the covering of my heart this quickly is leaving me grumpy and frustrated and an open target to discouragement!

What I’ve been processing lately is the fact that there is a fine line between believing that God blesses his children as they walk in obedience to Him, and expecting Him to do it in a certain way.  Does this make sense?  We believe God to be and do all He says He is and will do.  Because we believe it, we also expect Him to act on the Scriptural Truths about Him.  But in our day and place in this world, I’m beginning to think that we believers seem to have put God’s “blessings” into categories, and ranked them according to what we prefer.  In doing so, I realized that I am a spoiled child of God.  I want what I want when I want it, and if I don’t get it, I pout and cry.  I think, no, I know this is one of the things God is wanting to work out of me during this time.

This is so heavy on my heart because I’ve actually heard myself say things lately that I KNOW are not true to the way and nature of God.  As much as we know, James and I are walking in obedience to the Lord, yet if you looked at our lives, very little seems to be working out for us right now.   We are so thankful that he has a job, but our family is not together, serving the Lord with him.  Every effort made on behalf of selling our house has thus far failed.  We are empty of resources.  And on top of that, James was on his way home to see Nathan in a ballgame last week and had a wreck on the interstate.

I praise the Lord that we can’t control Him and His thoughts!  The bottom line for me is the word: Entitlement. It’s an attitude a lot of us have with the Lord.  “I’ve been a good little girl, so now You be a good Big God and give me _______.”

Oh, how wrong I have been!  Several times this week the Lord has brought me to scriptures about humbling yourself under the mighty Hand of God.  I realized that humility and entitlement can not exist simultaneously.  It’s humility God wants from His children.  An attitude of entitlement is an attitude of a spoiled brat.  (And we all know how UN-pleasurable it is to be in the company of a spoiled brat!) An attitude of humility is an attitude of realizing we deserve NOTHING, seeing EVERYTHING as a gift from God, and thanking Him in ALL things.

God has blessed us.  Please let me make it clear – He has overwhelmingly blessed us and been so very real and wonderful to us on this journey. I truly don’t mean to moan and complain.  In comparison to so many, I have nothing to complain about.  But I’m just keeping it real, and I’m saying all of this to get to the real point that I’ve been digesting lately. 

See, I thought that if we were walking in obedience to the Lord on the path He put us on, there wouldn’t be so. many. roadblocks. I knew there would be life-trials and faith-building times, but I never thought there would be so many huge deterrents all piled in one portion of the path.   Usually when we face such large deterrents, we begin to question our calling.  “Did I hear the Lord?  Did He really call me to this path?  Am I missing something?  Am I not obeying Him fully? and on and on…”

I’ve asked God those questions many times and the answer continues to be a resounding “YES! You have heard me correctly.  I have called you to Cleveland, MS, to serve me in the FBC and in the town.  You are not missing anything right now… except a consistant level of TRUST in ME!”

My friend, Amy, shared something with me a few weeks ago that has made all of the difference in the world to me and the way I can now view the Lord and our situation.  She had just finished studying the book of Acts in Community Bible Study and summed up what she learned.  It went something like this:

When we look at our circumstances and start to question our calls, think about Paul.  He hit one roadblock after another – arrests, prison, shipwrecks, trials, rejection… nothing seemed to “go right” for him on the paths God called him to walk.  But that didn’t mean that Paul wasn’t called to those paths.  Instead of complaining and questioning his call, Paul continued to boldly walk the paths God set him upon, and he did it in the strength and of the Lord.  Paul didn’t have an easy way at all.  He had very little relief inbetween major difficulties.  However, God used Paul in a way that has, is, and will continue to impact countless lives in every generation. 

The serving the Lord and impacting the generations may come from being on a road full of blessings of a different kind… and not the “obvious” ones we tend to look for and to expect.  Did God bless Paul?  Of course He did.  He gave Paul salvation, an intimate knowledge of God, the awareness of God’s presence, protection, deliverance, victory, wisdom, strength, help, the meeting of his immediate needs, friends…etc.  Paul was obedient.  God blessed Paul.  But Paul’s life was not an easy one. 

When it’s all said and done, I’d rather walk a path full of daily roadblocks forever, if it meant that my life would be used by God.  I just need to remember this the next time a discouraging road block is thrown in the path, and not be so quick to throw off my garment of expressive praise!  I don’t want to win America’s Got Talent with my quick-change act!  I want to win “Jennifer’s Got Faith”  with my wardrobe of consistant praise!  🙂

Please share your thoughts.  I’m still pondering.  Have you ever thought about this?  Do you have anything to add?  Is God teaching you these same things right now?

I’m praying for you, my friends, and will close with a verse for all of us:

“Your God has commanded your strength [your might in His service and impenetrable hardness to temptation]; O God, display Your might and strengthen what You have wrought for us!”  Psalm 68:28 (Amp)

Hi friends… its me again, editing to add one more from my QT this morning:

“Light is sown for the uncompromisingly righetous and strewn along their pathway, and joy for the upright in heart, the irrepressible joy which comes from consciousness of His favor and protection.”  Psalm 97:11 (Amp)

Light along the pathway, and joy from being conscious of God’s favor and protection.  That’s what God has for each of us today, and I just had to share it with my friends!