March 2012

BLESSED

An encouraging verse of scripture is found in Job 42:12, “The Lord blessed the latter part of Job’s life more than the first”. Many people quote Job’s life and his sufferings to justify the pain or disappointment that many Christians go through. Sickness, poverty, pain and disillusionment are justified by the first few chapters of the book of Job.  People focus on Job’s trials as the lessons that we are to learn from this book.

Earlier this year I had an incredible revelation concerning God’s blessing for mankind. Wherever I look in scripture I am seeing that God wants to bless us. His will, His desire, His purpose,His goal is to bless people. The word ‘bless’ means to bring happiness or wealth. The end result of God’s salvation will be to bring happiness and wealth to those who believe. Salvation brings people back to a place of blessing. The Garden of Eden was a place of blessing and total fulfilment for Adam and Eve before the fall.

Job had his troubles – this is obvious. He experienced pain and lack like most of us do at some time in our lives. Don’t be too quick to point the finger of suspicion at God. Satanic forces as well as wrong choices we make often bring pain and lack if we are not careful. There is a lot of poetic talk and discourse entered into by Job and his three comforters. You find yourself wading through rhetoric argument after argument, really going nowhere. The God breaks in and still the wagging tongues. Job’s friends are embarrassed. God doesn’t give an explanation of why Job suffered; He just reassured him that God is in control. Satan is defeated. Job’s friends are chastised and Job is blessed with more than he had before.

I think the last chapter of the book of Job reflects the true picture of how God wants life to be; simply blessed. Jesus said, “The thief comes only to steal, kill and destroy, I have come that they may have life and have it to the full”. The thief can be many things. Satan is the obvious one. However, many attitudes and actions rob us of blessing. Pride, rebellion, greed, lust, disobedience, laziness, selfishness and jealously are a few thieves that take away from the blessing that God wants to give us. What we shall sow we shall surely reap; the Word of God makes this truth plain. Disobedience disqualifies us from God’s blessing.

Every person reading this article is a candidate for the blessing of Almighty God.  From God’s standpoint He wants to bless, He is ready to bless. Sadly we become the bottleneck. We limit the blessing or slow it down simply because we don’t believe, and when we say we do believe, it is the wrong belief. Like Job’s friends we get it all wrong blaming God for withholding His blessing. We serve a loving God, who is wealthy beyond our dreams. God is rich, powerful and complete in Himself, yet wants to share His wealth and knowledge with us. The reason He wants to bless us is He loves us. Blessing is a demonstration of His infinite love for us. God doesn’t just say He loves us, He shows us by bestowing blessing upon us. We call it the Grace of God. It is true that we are saved by grace, but we are told to “grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ”.

Many ministers of the gospel have laboured faithfully for many years without seeing a great deal of fruit from their labours. Let me encourage you to claim this verse of scripture from Job for yourself. “The Lord blessed in the latter part of…. life more than the first”. Put your name on the dotted line. Blessings belong to you as a child of God. He desires to make you happy and wealthy. He desires to make your church happy and wealthy. He desires to make the ministry He has given you to succeed.

Even as you read these words you will be bombarded with thoughts of failure, impoverishment and doubt. Like Job, your so called friends speaking into your ears. Well meaning friends!  Never the less their words of ‘comfort’ can hold you back from reaching your full potential in God. Don’t look into the past for evidence of blessing…it’s probably not there. Don’t look to comforters for confirmation of blessing, they don’t have it either. Look to the promises of God found in His Word. Let faith arise and claim those promises. If you will do a study of the blessing of God, you will see the enormous possibilities that await you. The blessing of God comes not because you are clever or educated or well read, not because you are strong and determined, not because you are good and deserve to be blessed. No ,they come to us simply because God loves us.  No other reason.

So don’t disqualify yourself from the Grace of God. Openly receive His grace by faith and the latter part of your life will be blessed more than the first.

Ps John