The BLESSINGS of God?

I recently listened to a song called “Blessings” by Laura Story that a friend posted on Face book and I have posted here for you as well:
("Blessings" By Laura Story)

(Please listen to it before reading on if you can)

What are His blessings?

What I like about this song is that it challenges us and makes us think about what “blessings” really are.  Here are the words to the chorus:

…what if Your blessings come through raindrops
What if Your healing comes through tears
What if a thousand sleepless nights
Are what it takes to know You’re near
What if trials of this life are Your mercies in disguise

We typically see blessings as things that make us feel “good”, “safe”, and “comfortable” and give us “pleasure”… you know, things that make us "happy".  In the first verse of her song she sings:

We pray for blessings
We pray for peace
Comfort for family, protection while we sleep
We pray for healing, for prosperity
We pray for Your mighty hand to ease our suffering……

Those are the typical things that we see as blessings but… Does GOD think the same way we do about blessings?  Does he consider all those “good things” that we ask for as blessings? Here is the rest of the verse I wrote out above:

…All the while, You hear each spoken need
Yet love us way too much to give us lesser things

That is an amazing TRUTH that we so often miss!!  He loves us WAY TOO MUCH to give us “lesser things”!  THAT truth is truly God’s blessings and mercies.  We ask for what we think we need or want, but He typically gives us what we REALLY need … because HE LOVES us that much.  Just like our earthly fathers did when we were kids… “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 7:11)

Do We Trust Him?

So, I am compelled to ask this next question.  Do we trust His love for us or will WE define what His love should look like?  When things go wrong in life… like death, accidents, loss of a loved one, physical infirmities, loss of a job, financial difficulties… do we question His love for us?  Do we question His goodness?  Can we trust that He loves us no matter what “hard” things happen to us in this life?

We pray for wisdom
Your voice to hear
And we cry in anger when we cannot feel You near
We doubt Your goodness, we doubt Your love
As if every promise from Your Word is not enough
All the while, You hear each desperate plea
And long that we'd have faith to believe

I know my Lord and so I know that, because He is not limited to the “here and Now”, He is far more concerned about the “eternal perspective”!  Our "eternal life" is more important to Him than our life here in the temporal world.  If trials, tragedies and suffering, will bring you closer to Him, then that is His first priority… He desires and longs for a greater relationship with US and our eternity with HIM.  This life is just a blink of an eye but eternity is forever. He loves us THAT much.

So, I ask again. Can we see God's Love for us in ALL of our circumstances, trials and suffering?  And if difficult things come our way, does that mean that God loves us less? Will we allow the worlds definition of "happiness" define God's love for us? Or will we look to God for HIS definition of His love for us?

Here is the last part of the last chorus from Laura’s song:

What if my greatest disappointments
Or the aching of this life
Is the revealing of a greater thirst this world can’t satisfy
And what if trials of this life
The rain, the storms, the hardest nights
Are Your mercies in disguise

Oh Lord, help us to wrap our minds around this truth!

May 16^th - Oswald Chambers;

The Habit of Recognizing God & His Provision

2 Peter 1:4 “Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature and escape the corruption in the world caused by evil desires.”

“… The first habit to develop is the habit of recognizing God's provision for us… Does it really matter that our circumstances are difficult? Why shouldn't they be! If we give way to self-pity and indulge in the luxury of misery, we remove God's riches from our lives and hinder others from entering into His provision. No sin is worse than the sin of self-pity, because it removes God from the throne of our lives, replacing Him with our own self-interests. It causes us to open our mouths only to complain, and we simply become spiritual sponges --- always absorbing, never giving, and never being satisfied. And there is nothing lovely or generous about our lives.,,”

Father, I pray that we all can see Your blessings with Your eyes.  Help us to not “define” for ourselves what Your blessings are but allow the Holy Spirit to reveal them to us.   Lord, I am full of pride and selfishness and I need Your rod and Your staff to guide me into Your truth!  Open my eyes to see you clearer and to receive Your blessings, no matter what they look or feel like, with grace and thankfulness.  In Jesus name, Amen!