Just to have life itself, is a blessing. For before we are born and grow to an age of being aware of life, where our memory begins to retain information; we did not exist, but yet, we did not even know that we did not exist. To exist with a conscience and to be aware of our own well-being, is a blessing from God. To know that we are all created from a higher being, namely, God, just to live and breathe and have an existence here on Earth is a blessing beyond comprehension. To know our creator and to establish a personal relationship with him, not because we ‘have’ to, but because we want to, is a blessing; because that option is one of the many wonderful gifts to humanity from him. This option is called our power of choice, aka our will.
But in between the two events mentioned in the above title; which is also known as birth and death, there is a period of time for each person called life. Everything that happens between these two events should be considered by everyone as a blessing. Unfortunately, it is not deemed a blessing by everyone.
In Job 2:10, Job told his wife, ……What? Shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil?…..
Job had faced a terrible calamity when all of his livestock was taken from him in one day. This included even the sheep of his flock that was burned up when fire fell from heaven. But even worse than that; all of his children, which were all grown adults, were all gathered in one of his son’s houses, when a strong wind from the wilderness blew across and collapsed the house in on his kids and they all were killed. But even with all of this, the Bible says that Job did not sin with his lips; or in other words, with spoken words from his mouth.
Even though Job was devastated and grief-stricken at the loss of all of his children; he understood one thing. That we humans should not expect to receive good things only from God and never receive anything bad. Life is filled with happiness, but it also has a lot pain and sorrow twisted in between the happiness. Unfortunately many people see only the distorted twist of sorrow and barely, if at all, see any of the happiness in life. Job understood this as his calamity unfolded.
How are we going to react to the good and the bad that happens to us, in between the two events called birth and death? If we see only the good things as a blessing from God, and never see that even the hard times, the rough times, the pain and the sorrow, are also blessings in our lives; then how can we expect to reach a higher level of maturity and growth with God?
In Romans 8:28 it says, And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.
So if all things work together for good; then why do we see the pain and the hard times as anything less than a blessing? Why do we gripe and complain and display a bad attitude when we face tough times? Do we think God is going to remove these hard times from us if we pitch our fits and get mad and complain about them? No he won’t remove them; because our actions displayed, are revealing that within ourselves, we have not reached a victory and a higher level of maturity in God and gained more of his wisdom to see the hard times for what they really are, blessings.
In II Peter 3:9 it says, …..but is long-suffering to us-ward……
God is long-suffering toward us. He wants us to achieve a victory over tough times and gain wisdom and reach higher levels of maturity in him. So when we pitch our fits and get mad and blow-up in our less than pleasant times in our lives; all we are really doing, is prolonging the tough stuff, and agonizing ourselves with useless complaining that will never see us achieve the next level in God.
How can we expect to have tons of patience, if we are never faced with situations in life, that would require us to display the patience needed? We can only achieve patience when we are faced with problems, and when we pray to God for guidance and ask him in prayer for the patience needed to cope with whatever we are facing at the time. How can we have wisdom unless we ask for it? But even just asking won’t get us the wisdom we seek. God will always have a test or a trial or a storm for us to go through in order that we may gain the understanding as how to handle any situation that may arise.
We must have faith enough to believe God and his word. If he said it in his word, then we should be man enough or woman enough to accept it and believe it and know that God will NEVER go back on his word!
At a certain time, Jesus climbed into one of the disciples boats and they all joined him in the boat. He went to the back of the boat and laid down to sleep and rest. He told Peter and the disciples to set sail and go to the other side. There, he had some more ministry that he must do. But in the meanwhile as Jesus slept, a storm brewed up and the wind began to blow so strong that the disciples thought they would capsize. They became so afraid that they awoke Jesus from his rest. They cried out to Jesus “don’t you care that we perish?” But Jesus stood up and rebuked the wind and the waves and there came a calm over the sea. He asked them “why are you so fearful? Where is your faith?”
This storm could have been detrimental to anyone else that knew not God. But the disciples knew who he was; or at the least, they were beginning to realize who was amongst them. But what they didn’t seem to understand is, Jesus told them to go to the other side. He was on their boat! That in itself, was a blessing for them! But they did not fully comprehend right at that time, who really was on their boat.
If we are claiming to be true Christians that are baptized in Jesus name and have received the baptism of the Holy Ghost, then we need to realize that Jesus is on our boat! The boat in reference is life. He said he will never leave us nor forsake us.
So with Jesus on our boat in life, he knows what is best for us and he knows what the storms, the trials, the tests, and the hard times will do for our benefit. He knows how these tough times will aide us in our growth with God. It is up to us to see these hard times for what they really are; and that is blessings. Good times will bring us ease and enjoyment of pleasures from God for a season. But the bad times will bring us to a deeper place in prayer and they will cause us to see how much we need and depend on God for all things. Naked came I into this world and naked I shall leave this world. Anything I receive between these two events are blessings and nothing more.
7-8-12
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