From a Sneeze to a Blessing

Blessings. We often hear people say “God Bless (you)” in many facets of our daily lives. We read it at the end of a heartfelt card, hear it in a pastor’s prayer to the congregation, and more often than not say it and receive it when those tingling sneezes overcome us with a vicious ahh choo! When it comes to blessings, there are a few questions that seem to linger around the subject. Do we actually know what it means to be blessed by God? Do we know what a blessing is? Better yet, do we know how or why God chooses to bless people?

Imagine it is your tenth birthday and you have been asking for that brand new mountain bike; you know, the one with the shimmery silver speckles woven throughout the metallic paint job. You have been asking your parents for this treasure of childhood imaginings for months. It is now the special day, the day you have been waiting for; the day you enter the realm of double digits. Good-bye single stroke age writing, now comes real life, adding that precious one to the forefront of the zero. You walk into your living room fancily clad with streamers and balloons echoing birthday wishes as you pass by their vibrant enthusiasm. All of a sudden, smack dab in the middle of the room is a box..a HUGE box. A box so big, it could only contain one thing: that beautiful desire you have been asking your parents for incessantly for the last six months three days 20 hours and 13 minutes. You are keeping your eye on the prize as your heart begins to beat double time and your arms get that eager tingling full of that inexplicable urgency to run over, tear that festive balloon paper piece to piece and unveil the gift you know your parents lovingly bought for you. As you are floating over to your long awaited present, you dad steps in front of you, places a hand on your shoulder, bends down and looks you in the eye as he states, “Now, my child, if you want this present, first you must clean the garage top to bottom, paint the bathroom, rearrange all of the closets, do the laundry, mop and wax the kitchen floor, vacuum and scrub the carpets, rake the leaves, mow the lawn, clean the oven do the dishes…and then, maybe, if your work is up to par, you can have your present.” Soon, the huge, beautifully wrapped mountain bike in the blue and yellow birthday paper begins to zoom out of your vision as a dizzying array of discouragement envelops your entire being.

I don’t know about you, but I do not know of any parent who is going to make their child perform chore upon chore, task upon task, and feat upon feat to receive his or her birthday present. It is quite the contrary in fact…once the parents have bought the gift for their child, they are filled with just as much or more anticipation to see the joy wash over their sweet child’s face as their son or daughter embraces the long awaited gift.

The same is said for God…He wants to bless us. We do not need to perform works; that will get us nowhere. We need to love God, praise God, thank God, obey God, and love people the way He loves us. Just like the child who asked the parents for the birthday present, we need to ask for his blessings in our lives. There are lists upon lists of the blessings God wants to pour out, if only we would just ask Him for them.

How are you going to receive His blessings if you do not ask him? How will you know His will if you do not ask Him?

 “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened. Which of you, if your son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!” Matthew 7:7-11

"Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus" (1 Thessalonians 5:16-18).

Sister, Sister

I once heard a pastor tell a story of how when he was nineteen, he had been out drinking all night and to his adolescent judgment decided it would be wise for him to drive home. During his drive home, he just barely avoided an accident (it was about three in the morning at this time). The next day, which just happened to be a Sunday, his mom called him and the first thing she asked him was what he had been doing the night before. He told his mom that he had been in bed of course (“after a hard day of working with the orphans”…cue sarcastic tone). A few years later, after he had given his life to Christ he told his mom the story of what had happened and she told him that during that evening, she had been woken up at exactly three in the morning because she had a dream or a feeling that her son was not going to make it through the night, so right at that instance, she began praying for her boy. I believe that Holy Spirit had woken her up to intercede for her son…to pray for her son. As James 5:16 puts it “…pray for each other…the prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective.”

On August 19, 2010 I got a phone call from my sister. I answered, “Hello” and there was no “Hey sister “or “Hiiiiii” that would have been the norm from Hillary. Instead, I got a panicky voice on the other end, rushing through hurried tones, exclaim “Amanda. I need to pray for you RIGHT now,” and that is what she did. Not only that, but she prayed for precisely what I needed prayer for in that moment, in that day, in that week, in that month, in that year. I can recall where I was, what I was wearing, and the feel of the warm, summer Michigan air blowing in through both of my bedroom windows as I was routinely going through folding laundry and picking up my bedroom. I can recollect the way the lamps in my room used their light to echo off the warm yellow tones of my walls. I can feel the past reverberation of the way my heart was beating so quickly and with such power as I felt convicted and encouraged all in the same beautiful moment. The details…I remember the details so significantly because this was a significant moment in etching me into the woman I am still on my way to becoming. Hillary lived a few states away and had no idea the particulars of my life that had taken place and the outcry for help that I had breathed toward Heaven in the early mornings the day before.

God has used many people to speak to me; more so over the past few months, but none as strongly as he seems to use my sister. This past Sunday, I spent the majority of the day just conversing and spilling the outpour of my heart out to God. I spent my entire workout just praying and throughout the day I kept praying the verse 1 Samuel 3:10 “Speak, LORD, for your servant is listening.” After dinner, I went into my room, sat on bed, and just prayed that God would speak to me, whether through his Word or a person. I opened my Bible and turned to the Psalms…each and every passage felt like God was just building me up and encouraging me. One particular passage reiterated deep into my heart and mind, sending that fragrance of encouragement throughout my entire being.  It was Psalm 62:5-12 that triggered the sense of the Lord sitting by my bedside, just letting me know that all I need to do is trust him:

 Let all that I am wait quietly before God,
for my hope is in him.
⁶ He alone is my rock and my salvation,
my fortress where I will not be shaken.
⁷ My victory and honor come from God alone.
He is my refuge, a rock where no enemy can reach me.
⁸ O my people, trust in him at all times.
Pour out your heart to him,
for God is our refuge.

While I was reading through the scriptures, I stopped, and just began to pray…wholeheartedly pray. My specific prayer was this: “Jesus, please use someone to speak to me right now. I need someone to calm me down and build me up with the words you want me to hear.” All of the sudden my text message notification rang and I picked up my phone to see that I had a new message from Hillary. I opened the message and almost fell off my bed for it stated exactly what I had been praying for all day…she had been praying the identical prayer that had been my heartcry throughout the day. I responded to her message and told her that I had just asked God to use someone to speak to me and she said that she had actually prayed that prayer over an hour ago, but there was something stirring inside of her at that moment to let me know.

I believe God will use people to speak to us and will use us to speak to other people. Prayer is such a powerful tool; I believe that we all need to use it more often. During those moments in the day when someone comes to your mind, when you can’t stop thinking about a certain person, or that moment you are walking down the street and catch someone’s eye…these are all examples of the boundless opportunities that God will use to have us intercede for other people. I want to thank God for using different people to speak His words to me and I pray that he continues to speak to me. Furthermore, I pray that He will use me to intercede on the behalf of others so that they may be encouraged and built up. I pray for you, that God blesses you, strengthens you, and fills you with more hope and joy than you could ever possibly imagine.

Romans 8:26 “In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us.”