God’s Blessings be Curses?

February, 2009

by: Dave Jordan

May it never be!

My wife said, “Honey, why don't you go take the next 30 minutes to work on your Bible study?” Ah, the refreshing time of the Word was just around the corner. Our three little ones would be taken care of, and I would have uninterrupted time with my Savior. 29 Minutes later, my wife came through the room to grab something, and I said, “OK, your turn, why don't you take some time to study?” OK, I'll finish getting the kids dressed first. Hey, another five minutes I thought. Sweet! Then, over the course of the next five minutes, my sin nature took over. The baby started screaming, one child carries the screaming baby to Daddy, ‘who’s trying to study the Word mind you’, another child comes in half dressed with a hundred questions, and my train of tranquility had officially left the station.

My study had obviously not been applied yet, and my selfish desires allowed God’s little blessings to jack hammer my quiet time. Men, maybe you can relate. Maybe the situation and inconveniences are different, but you've been interrupted by some of God’s little blessings in your life. Contentment has become situational instead of positional. I had let 30 minutes with God and His Word be overcome by the very things he had meant for good.

Enter: God’s Word and shameful thinking from out East. Ephesians 1:1-2“…to the saints who are at Ephesus and who are faithful in Christ Jesus: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.” Oh yeah, but you don't understand, my kids are well, kids! They don't respect my time and my needs. No peace here. Eph 1:3“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ.” Timeout! Every spiritual blessing...in Christ? But my job is uncertain and that will cause all kinds of frustration and anxiety and bills to pay with no money. Eph 1:4“just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him.” Listen, I'm glad God chose me and everything, but holy and blameless? No one can live up to that. Aren't we all sinners? I'm trying my best OK? Eph 1:4b-5“In love He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will” (emphasis added). Yes, I know He loves me, but couldn't I just get a raise at work? That would solve so many problems. And yes I know I am His son, but my circumstances, which He put me in, cause so much grief and anger that I sometimes wonder what His definition of love really is. Eph 1:6“to the praise of the glory of His grace, which He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved.”

Oh, wait a minute. Did you say “according to the kind intention of His will?” Did you say this was about His glory and not mine, about the praise of His grace? So this isn't about me? Are you telling me that this grace is placed upon me freely, through Jesus Christ, God’s Beloved? My Lord, forgive me.

You see, when we place our sin, our verbal and mental filth, next to the glorious pages of God’s truth, our error becomes obvious to all. There are so many assuming and presumptuous errors recorded in the wrongful thinking above, and yet that is how we tend to think. “Lord, you don't understand” or “Please Lord, I've got a better way.” But “Lord” is exactly what he is not in those times. The joy of the Lord has been pushed aside.

When life kicks you around and your joy is gone, it’s high time to pour over the Word of God, which is able to renew the mind and cleanse the heart. (Rom 12:2, Heb 10:22) Then look back at the point in your day/week/month where you started to stray from God’s Word and grow the filthy sin within you. This is the point at which you must guard your heart the next time around. Know the trigger points that lead you away from being a glorifying tool of the Lord’s, and fight for their removal. Then give God his due praise through your life, or that is what’s at stake, right now. That is what’s always at stake; God’s glory. Let not your blessings be curses, but be submissive to God who “causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.” (Rom 8:28) You can start right now by learning Ephesians 1:3-6, reciting it both day and night till it permeates your thinking and changes your heart.