BLESSING

ALL OF us know people who are living unproductive lives. Our society is filled with people who offer no productivity to the well-being of themselves, their families, their jobs, or society in general. They are just hanging on.

A leech sucks blood from a host. It takes nutrients without leaving its host anything beneficial in return. Similar to leeches, unproductive people take, but do not give.

One of the ways God will bless you is by making your life productive. He will enable you to do more with your life than exist. He will enable you to make a life that is worth something.35

[Giving; Christian Living, Power]

Ps. 1; 1 Cor. 12:4–7; Eph. 2:10

HAVE YOU ever been to a real pizzeria? Especially a real, authentic Italian place? The dough is the best! That dough goes through some major abuse before it is ready to be served and eaten. It is slammed down on the counter. Bam! It’s treated very rough. A rolling pin mashes it and flattens it out. It is twirled around on a single finger, then thrown spinning up in the air.

Now, most people aren’t thinking about the process of making the dough. They just want the good stuff—the pepperoni, sausage, cheese, and sauce. But the good stuff doesn’t happen unless the dough has been made ready to receive it.

See, many people want to see the goodness of God, the power of God, or the blessing of God and wonder why it’s not happening the way they think it should. God is trying to tell them that “the dough isn’t quite ready to receive it.” Sometimes we are just not ready for the blessings of God to be fulfilled.36

[Sanctification; Maturity]

Luke 14:11; James 4:10; 1 Peter 5:6

CREDITCARD companies send mass mailings to people with amazing news of great grace. The recipients have not applied for a new card or a new level of credit, but the credit card company freely offers unsolicited spending power. These gracious companies write customers to tell them they are prequalified or preapproved. The only thing left for the customer to do is to accept the offer and spend! The limit has already been negotiated and all that’s left to do is use it. By accepting Christ, we have accepted His terms and are prequalified for the spiritual benefits and resources available to us.37

[Grace; Provision, God’s]

Rom. 5:17; Eph. 2:8

CITIES have food banks and blood banks. They’re designed to help other people live. Although these banks are set up to collect, they are not designed simply to hoard and to store. The resources they gather help other people to live—either by the infusion of food or by the infusion of nutrients from blood.

God has saved and blessed Christians so that we can share the blessings God has given us with others.38

[Giving]

Gen. 12:3; Acts 2:44–45; 1 Cor. 16:1–4

THE STORY is told of Mr. Yates, who owned a farm in Texas. The Great Depression came and he was having trouble keeping up with the payments on his farm. The bank began to press Mr. Yates and gave him thirty days to pay his back payments or face foreclosure. With three weeks left to go, a man came to Mr. Yates’s door. He worked for an oil company. He asked Mr. Yates to give the company a lease to drill on his farm for oil. Yates knew he was going to lose the farm anyway, so he decided that it couldn’t hurt. Well, that oil company did drill and hit a gusher—eighty-two thousand barrels of oil a day. Mr. Yates immediately became a multi, multi, many-times-over millionaire.

Now, there’s a question on the floor. Exactly when did Mr. Yates become a millionaire? Did Mr. Yates become a millionaire when the oil company struck oil or did Mr. Yates become a millionaire when he bought the farm? Mr. Yates was a millionaire the moment he purchased the farm, but he lived in poverty because he didn’t know what was underneath the ground.

When you came to faith in Jesus Christ as your personal sin bearer, the moment you came to faith, you were blessed “in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing” (Ephesians 1:3). Like Mr. Yates, many of us are living in the Great Depression. We are living spiritually poor, spiritually defeated, spiritually weak, and spiritually anemic lives even while sitting on top of all this wealth, because we don’t know what’s down there.39

[Provision, God’s]

Col. 2:2

WILLIAM Randolph Hearst, the great publisher, read about a painting and became greatly interested in it. Desperately desiring to own this painting, he sent his people all over to try to locate this painting but they couldn’t find it anywhere. A year later, out of the blue, one of his employees came to him and told him that the painting had at last been found. Hearst, excited about the discovery, asked where it had been all this time. His employee said, “It was in your basement. You’ve owned it all the time.” Mr. Hearst had never read the ledger that had record of everything he owned. He did not understand the wealth that he already possessed. Many believers operate their lives never fully understanding all of the blessing that is available to them in Christ.40

A MAN died who was extremely wealthy. His will was full of art pieces—very expensive art pieces. This man had a son who had died before him, a son whom he loved, and this son would have been his only heir. Soon after the death of the wealthy man a public auction was held that included the valuable art pieces. People came from all over the world because of those works of art. Over a thousand people gathered to participate in the auction. The auctioneer began the auction by offering up for sale a portrait, painted by the deceased son. It was a rather plain painting—not at all like the other expensive art pieces. The floor opened for bids, but there weren’t any. After what seemed like a long silence, a little old man walked down the aisle. As he neared the front of the room, the auctioneer recognized him. He had been the servant of the wealthy man.

He meagerly and almost shamefully offered a couple of dollars from his pocket for the child-drawn portrait. The auctioneer hit his gavel and said, “Sold!” The many people in the room shifted with excitement, preparing for the main part of the selling to begin. But much to their surprise and chagrin, the auctioneer hit the gavel again and said, “Auction over.” The room filled with loud chatter and confusion, wondering at the early close of the auction. The auctioneer went on to explain. In the will of the master, the instructions specifically said to offer for sale the painting drawn by his son first, and that whoever gets the painting of his son gets the whole art collection. The master had decided well in advance that whoever loved his son and accepted him could not only have his son’s work, but all the other benefits that belonged to the father.41

[Salvation, Benefits of]

John 5:22–23; 2 Peter 1:17

WHEN I first started traveling and speaking in other places, my kids were small so I’d go by the gift store in the airport and I’d buy a gift to bring back to them. I would buy them a blessing. I’d buy a little toy or a trinket from the gift shop like some jacks for my girls or a little car for my boys. On my return I would give them the gift. They would always be excited. I would always get a hug and a kiss. There would be great gratitude and thanks because I had come back with a blessing and they were excited about the blessing. What made me feel good and excited me was the fact that they were excited about the blessor. I got a hug and I got a kiss as they expressed gratitude. But after a while, they began to look forward to my trips. They wanted me to leave again. In other words, my kids were so into the blessings that they had lost sight of the bless-er. As long as the bless-er brought back a blessing, they were fine. A lot of folk want to come to church and don’t want to mess with the bless-er. They just want the bless-er to leave behind a blessing. God has said, “Return to me” (Malachi 3:7). He wants us to be focused on Him.42

[Thanksgiving, Motivation for; Intimacy, with God; First Love]

Deut. 8:10–11; Rev. 2:3–5

THE GREEK word for blessed, makarios, was the name of an island off of Greece—the Makarios Island. It was known as the blessed island because it was self-contained. The residents didn’t need to leave the island in order to get their needs met. The island offered everything that they needed. The natural resources of the blessed island were so thick, so rich, so fruitful, and so productive that everything they needed to enjoy their lives was already built-in. The inhabitants of the island were self-sustained and self-contained without having to run to another island to get their needs met. The blessed island provided everything they needed.

All the stuff you get is outside of you. The new car, the new house, and the new money are all fine … but they are all extra. They are a bonus. In the biblical world of being blessed, you should be okay being on the island. Just being in the Kingdom with the King ought to put you in a blessed location. One of the ways you know that you aren’t blessed yet in the biblical sense of the word is that you got to keep leaving the island to have fun. You need more than your relationship with God to have peace. You crave more than your communion with the Father to have joy. The blessed person finds their sufficiency with Him.43

[Kingdom of God; Contentment; Provision, God’s]

Matt. 5:1–12; 1 Tim. 6:6

IF YOU were to go to Universal Studios, either in Florida or in California, they will take you on a tour in a tram through their movie lots. In these movie lots you’ll see western towns and modern-day types of towns where films are made. The tour guides will explain to you as you drive through that what you are looking at is a facade. The external may look like it’s a town or a city, but if you were to go on the other side, there’s nothing there. There’s no reality behind what you see. It looks good, but there’s nothing else there. The lots are simply there to create an impression of a town or a city for the purposes of the film.

Unfortunately today, much of what goes on in the lives of Christians is not a reflection of true blessing but more like a facade. Beyond the external, their lives have nothing solid on the other side.44

[Weakness]