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
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