Receiving the Blessings of God
There are many who think that God does not bless them. More often than not, this is because they don’t consider of what God’s blessings to man consist. Many are selfish, and think if they don’t receive financial wealth or maintain physical health with little or no effort, they aren’t “blessed”.
All God has given man is a blessing to him. Christ created the Earth on which we live. According to Hebrews 1:3, He set all things in order and upholds them by the word of His power. Who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high; Surely this is one of God’s many blessing to all of mankind.
In fact, God blesses all, and Jesus said so in the Sermon on the Mount. In Matthew 5:44-45, Jesus pointed out that all the Jews were God’s children under that Old Testament Law, and both the “good and the bad” received the benefit of God’s temporal blessings upon them. But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you; 45 That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.
Another excellent example of God’s Blessings being liberally applied to all His Old Testament children is the forty years when Israel wandered in the wilderness. In Exodus 16:35 we read of the “blessing” God provided them. And the children of Israel did eat manna forty years, until they came to a land inhabited; they did eat manna, until they came unto the borders of the land of Canaan. Will any argue that all the Israelites were continually obedient to God’s Commands? No! In fact, their own disobedience was the very reason it took forty years for Israel to travel to the Promised Land.
Old Testament Israel’s shoes and clothing not wearing out while they wandered were also physical blessings from God. The rain for nourishment of the earth is a physical blessing. These blessings from God require little to no effort on the part of the recipients. Some blessings of God do require the recipients to “do something” before receiving the blessing. In the case of the manna, the Israelites had to “go out”, and “pick up”, the manna so they could eat. The same with the quail the Lord sent for their sustenance. Numbers 11:32 proves this to be so. And the people stood up all that day, and all that night, and all the next day, and they gathered the quails: he that gathered least gathered ten homers: and they spread them all abroad for themselves round about the camp.
The same concept applies to the spiritual blessings God has richly given man. The “physical” blessings Israel received were so the future blessings of a “spiritual” nature would come to be. Galatians 4:4-5 helps us to see this and none who believe in Christ would deny that Jesus’ coming is a blessing to man. But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, 5 To redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons. Jesus also said in the latter part of John 10:10 why He came. I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly. Can any say this is not a blessing?
God’s temporal blessings, (rain, sun, etc.) require no effort whatsoever on the part of the ones who benefit therefrom. But even some of God’s “spiritual blessings” to man require some effort of those who would be profited by them. God does not “rain down” Salvation upon man. We are shown in Acts 10:34 that all are to receive God’s spiritual blessings in the same way. Then Peter opened his mouth, and said, Of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons: In Colossians 3:24-25 the Spirit had Paul explain this in such a way that the brethren there could not possibly misunderstand. Knowing that of the Lord ye shall receive the reward of the inheritance: for ye serve the Lord Christ. 25 But he that doeth wrong shall receive for the wrong which he hath done: and there is no respect of persons.
In Philippians 2:12 the Spirit also had Paul remind the brethren who worshipped there that one’s Salvation was not simply “handed to them”. Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.
James 1:25 additionally affirms this. But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed.
Of course, all should realize there are no spiritual blessings anywhere, except in Christ. Ephesians 1:3 confirms it. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ: Seek to become a Christian, a child of God in accordance to His Word and “work” to prepare yourself to enjoy the eternal blessings He has promised to the obedient and the faithful. That’s the only way those blessings can be received of God.
Dennis Strickland – Mooresville church of Christ
