God created everything before creating any of the living beings, to avoid any lack for them. In like manner He conducts everything in our lives also as per His wonderful plan for us. But we in our own wisdom, attempt to run it all in our ways and create chaos. However, when we look all around us, we are filled with awe at all that God has done for us and then every heartbeat becomes a blessing.
God desires to bless but why do the hurdles come in that? In the Garden of Eden, out of all the fruit trees, there was only one tree that was barred from Adam and Eve. The reason given by God was ‘in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die’ (Genesis 2:17). The tree provided the ‘knowledge of good and evil’ and the devil, in the guise of the serpent, showed them the blessing from that, while denying the curse. They were told, ‘the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil’ (Genesis 3:5).
But why were they prohibited by God from knowing good also? They were already created in the ‘image and likeness of God’ and this additional knowledge would not benefit in that. God wanted them and all of mankind to know Him and live in that knowledge rather than experiencing good and evil that brings fear and shame. Knowledge of good brings comparison with others and thus brings jealousy and resentment. This brings enmity and discord among various groups, who are suffering inequality and even oppression at the hands of the strong. The experience of evil brings temptations that are beyond the control of human beings. These are of the flesh, to satisfy the hunger of the body about everything, not only food. Or it could be of the eyes which is about sensation and the desire to have beyond what is needed. The third is of the ego and pride, to become like and better than someone else.
As a result of this, both Adam and Eve looked for someone else to take the blame and were filled with the fear of the same God who cared for them and loved them. Apostle Paul expressed fear for the believers ‘lest somehow, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, so your minds may be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ’ (2 Corinthians 11:3). A woman is blamed for bringing sin into the world but the fault is less of her and more of Adam. First, he received the command from God and conveyed it to Eve, without ensuring proper understanding. Second, he was with her, yet never interfered to stop the conversation with the serpent (Genesis 3:6). Third, he did not correct her perception of not even touching the tree, what God had never said. Fourth, he did not correct the devil’s lie of no death on eating the fruit of the prohibited tree. Fifth, He did not stop her from eating.
Satan wants us to doubt the Word of God, ‘Has God indeed said’ about every command and promise of God. Any little delay in answer to our prayers, sufferings and lack and sickness and disease are all tools used by the devil to create doubts in the mind of a believer. We need to remember that God answers the desperate cry from the heart. Second, Satan leads people to doubt God’s character as a loving and a caring Father. Eve was made to believe that God does not want you to be strong and independent by denying you the resources from the one and only tree available for that growth (Genesis 3:5). Mankind is the only part of the creation that carries the image and likeness of God and thus be His representatives to manage His creation.
During the restoration of Apostle Peter, Lord Jesus blessed him three times with the task to ‘Feed My lambs’; ‘Tend My sheep;’ and finally, ‘Feed My sheep’ (John 21:15-17). Every time one part was repeated by the Lord to emphasise that you care for My followers. Lord Jesus renamed Apostle Simon as Peter, the rock and then declared that on this rock of faith ‘I will build My church’ (Matthew 16:18). The Church is the Lord’s and any perception of it being the pastor’s flock is sinfully stealing from God what belongs to Him. How can we expect to be blessed when we try and deceive the All-Knowing God? We are clearly warned, ‘I, the LORD, search the heart, I test the mind, even to give to every man according to his ways, according to his doings’ (Jeremiah 17:10). Through faith in Lord Jesus, we are saved and blessed and this is the act of grace and mercy of God.
Lucifer (Satan) was created in perfection by a perfect God to worship Him in heaven (Isaiah 14:14). Filled with pride in his God-given capabilities, he decided to be his own god and decided to ‘ascend above the heights of the clouds, I will be like the Most-High’. In his rebellion against God, he also misled one-third angels and God cast all of them on the earth. The temptation and the modus-operandi of his attempts remain the same as at the beginning, to rebel against the Creator’s authority and be independent of Him and His control. We select our own gods to worship; success, wealth, houses and other appliances, while seeking God to provide. Lord Jesus is categorical in His teaching, ‘For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also’ (Matthew 6:21).
We do not pray to seek God but give God a ‘to do list’, the works that He should do for us while we are busy in everything else. The Greek word used for praying is ‘proseuxomai’, which has two words, where ‘pros’ means exchange and ‘euxomai’ is to pray. Thus, prayer is an exchange, a two-way communication by switching human wishes for God’s wishes, while we receive faith also from Him. How can we expect the God who made us to bend to our will without even wanting to know His desire or plan for us?
The true blessings – About Lord Jesus, we know that, ‘In Him was life, and the life was the light of men’ (John 1:4). As the Creator, He breathed into the nostrils of the man formed from the dust of the earth to give him life. He is the Light, the Living Word, that shows us the way to live in line with the will and way of God. Nicodemus was a Pharisee, a Jewish leader and member of the Sanhedrin, their supreme Council, who came to meet Lord Jesus by night for he was afraid of the other Jewish leaders (John 3:1-20). He was told about being born again into the light and truth, shedding darkness behind. He was cautioned by the Lord, ‘everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed’. He was convinced of the truth of the words spoken to him by the Lord and raised his voice in the Sanhedrin. The Chief Priests and the Jewish leaders wanted the Son of God to be arrested and condemned. The officers of the Temple Guard did not arrest and said, ‘No man ever spoke like this Man!’ (John 7:46-51). When the leaders persisted, Nicodemus said to them, ‘Does our law judge a man before it hears him and knows what he is doing?’
Later, Nicodemus joined Joseph of Arimathea in organising the burial of the Master and brought ‘a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about a hundred pounds’, the quantity usually used for the burial of a king (John 19:39). Lord Jesus’ call to all the disciples was and is the same today also, ‘Follow Me’. And then He clarified the way for this also, by saying, ‘If any one desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me’ (Luke 9:23). The people of that time knew exactly the meaning of taking up one’s cross. A convict was supposed to carry his cross to the crucifixion site and this was a one-way journey. A follower is supposed to die to himself, his own desires, plans and longings of the soul and commit to carry out the desires of the Lord. This is not an occasional submission but through prayer, a daily thing.
The rich young ruler who sought the way to eternal life from the Lord was told to ‘go sell what you have and give to the poor’ and then follow Him (Matthew 19:21-22). On hearing this, ‘he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions’. This man is believed to be Nicodemus, who is supposed to have been rich enough to feed the entire population of Jerusalem for one year. After the resurrection of Lord Jesus, he is said to have sold all his wealth and gave to the poor and became a disciple. For this, he was badly beaten by the Jewish leaders, thrown out of the Sanhedrin and Jerusalem. His name was included by Apostle John in his Gospel account to honour him for his commitment to the Lord. It is not that one is required to sell all his wealth but at least use a part of that for His kingdom work.
We give to charity and the Church on the presumption that we will get ten times more due to misinterpretation of the Scripture. Chapter 6 in the Gospel of Saint Luke is a condensed version of the Sermon on the Mount. Lord Jesus taught about loving, being merciful, not judging or condemning others (Luke 6:35-38). Then He said, ‘Give and it will be given to you; good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over will be put into your bosom’. The context is about all the other things and not about money or anything connected to that. We receive blessings by aligning our lifestyle with the will and Word of God and these could be spiritual, physical or material. We as followers of the Lord are commanded, ‘Whoever claims to live in Him must live as Jesus did’ 1 John 2:6). He came to love, forgive and bless all those who turn to Him and that is what we also must do to be considered His followers in the real sense.
True meaning of being blessed – Lord Jesus compared His work with the work of the devil, but that does not mean that the two are equal or similar in any manner (John 10:10). While One is God the other is a being, created by Him and in a fallen sinful state. The Lord said, ‘The thief (Satan) does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly’. The devil destroys relationships, vertically with God and horizontally with others, causing fights, divorces and undue stress. The blessing from Lord Jesus is more about His mighty presence in us, for He has promised, ‘I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. A little while longer and the world will see Me no more, but you will see Me. Because I live, you will live also’ (John 14:18-19). The curse that came on all of mankind through sin was spiritual death first, and then physical death. This separation also caused hard labour to get earth to yield its produce, in whatever job one may be in. With forgiveness of sins and salvation this separation with God has been removed and we are part of His family, as His children. With this we receive the fulfilment of His promise of being His sheep, who are cared for and provided for by Him. We bring to Him our lack of five loaves and He multiplies that to enable us to be a blessing for many others.
His presence in and with us brings blessings, for He has said, ‘I will go before you and make the crooked places straight; I will break in pieces the gates of bronze and cut the bars of iron’ (Isaiah 45:2-3). The promise is to create new opportunities and free us from the devil and self-imposed barriers. He has further promised, ‘I will give you the treasures of darkness and hidden riches of secret places, that you may know that I, the LORD, who call you by your name, am the God of Israel’. Abraham believed God and waited for twenty-five years for his son Isaac to be born. To allay the fear of Abraham, God agreed for a covenant with him by walking through the two pieces of a heifer, a female goat, a ram, a turtle-dove and a pigeon (Genesis 15:7-18). Abraham waited and ‘when the vultures came down on the carcasses’ he drove them away. When we wait for answers from God the vultures always come as doubts, fears, discouragement and about the futility of it all. We drive them away by focusing on the Word of God and the blessings received in the past and the faithfulness of God, who does not change. Like Abraham we also falter in our faith and sin, but must rise up again to follow God.
Lord Jesus interceded for the Disciples and Apostle Peter especially, that their faith may not fail during their temptation by the devil (Luke 22:32). He was tasked by the Lord, ‘when you have returned to Me, strengthen your brethren’. When we are down and cry out to the Lord, He reaches out to get hold of us and pull us out of the situation, but with that the responsibility to help others also comes. He blessed us as the Son of God on earth as our Intercessor and does the same now while sitting at the right hand of God the Father in heaven with all power and authority.
Our Lord further prayed to the Father in heaven, ‘Father, I desire that they also whom You gave Me may be with Me where I am’ (John 17:24). God interceded for us here, blessed us with His presence, the Holy Spirit, in us, to help us live a life of joy in Him. And then, the same God, who has prepared a place for us in heaven, comes to take us with Him (John 14:2-3). He desires us to live a blessed life here on earth and hereafter in the abundance of heaven. The devil may come like a roaring lion with the intention of devouring us, but we are protected by a God who shuts the lions’ mouths to protect us. Joseph could tell his brothers, ‘you sold me here; for God sent me before you to preserve life’ (Genesis 45:5).
We are assured by Apostle Paul’s words, ‘we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose’ (Romans 8:28). The ups and downs of life are our training ground to perform greater tasks for His Kingdom, here on earth. When we look back on our lives, we find the truth of this in various situations that we faced in the past. We are His chosen and blessed people and we rejoice and give thanks.
The devil attempts to keep us focused on our lack and sufferings only, so that we do not count our blessings from God. The most difficult task of our lives is to keep track of God’s grace and mercy and His abundance. We are required to give thanks and offer prayers and supplications to Him so the showers of His love keep falling on us!
