Did you know that you are always on God's mind? You may be wondering, "Is that good or bad?". Let me put your mind at ease; it's good. Psalm 113:12, says, "The Lord has been ever mindful of us". Then, again in Jeremiah 29:11 the Lord says, "For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you and expected end".
This means that the Lord is always thinking of ways to bless us. The devil, however, is always thinking of ways he can steal from us. In John 10:10, Jesus said, "The thief cometh not but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more anbundantly (to the full 'till it overflows: The Living Bible).
Well, you say, if the Lord is always thinking of ways to bless us what's stopping him from doing it and why aren't we seeing these blessings in profusion, like health, prosperity, and happiness, etc.? I believe that I have the answer and it is this: God does nothing outside his spiritual laws that He set up "before the foundation of the earth". Consequently, we must operate within these laws in order to get the blessings.
We must make sure that we are not in disobedience and we are operating within His spiritual laws. This will make us blessable, as Pat Robertson puts it. How do we know if we are operating within His spiritual laws. Well, we have this book. It's called the Bible. If you study it diligently, using a concordance to do word studies on subjects where you are looking for answers, you will find what God says about a particular subject. Then, if you get in line with what He says to do, you will get your answer. You may have to wait awhile for the answer but it will come in God's timing.
Like all fathers but even more so, God wants the best for His children, but He requires something from us; obedience, before He gives us what He wants to give us. For example, lets look at a typical earthly father and son situation and see if it makes sense.
A young boy wants a bicycle for his birthday and his father tells him he can have it if he does his assigned chores and follows the rules that have been laid down for his family; rules like not lying or stealing or sassing his mother. The boy agrees that he will do all that his father says so he can get the bicycle.
Now, suppose that the boy doesn't follow the rules and has to be dragged, kicking and screaming, to do his chores. As a result, when his birthday arrives he doesn't get the bicycle. The boy gets furious and tells his dad that he has broken his agreement and that he will never trust his dad again. Now, who has broken the agreement? Obviously, the boy has, but in his rebellious state, he can't see that. The truth is, the father who wants to bless his son with a new bicycle, can't even though it grieves his heart, because the son has not followed the agreement.
Does this sound like your relationship with God? He makes the rules and you, as a Christian, agree to follow them. An agreement is a covenant or testament, ie. New Testament. These rules are not for salvation. That is a free gift based on Romans 10:9. These rules are God's spiritual laws that govern they way things work with Him. If you don't follow them He can't bless you the way He wants to and it grieves His heart the same way that it grieves the earthly father's heart in our example.
Look at it this way, God is like a manufacturer who makes a product and prints an "owner's manual" to tell the purchaser how to operate the product. Well, He created us or "manufacturerd" us and gave us His "owners manual", the Bible, to show us how to operate. If we don't follow the "manual" we will not function properly. So, let us read the "manual" and learn how we are supposed to work, and then be obedient to what it says, so we can get in line with God's spiritual laws. Then we will be blessed in everything we do.
Be Blessed,
Glory to God,
Hal Mitchell
halmitch@cox.net
