Showers of Blessing
Negative pessimism is a hard monkey to get off your back. It colors everything dull and bland. It stifles creativity, ruins relationships, and makes everything hopeless. You lose sight of all that you “have and are” for what you “want and are not.” The other morning I took a one mile walk with Melanie. When I got back home I noticed the nice truck I drive, the beautiful home I live in, and the wonderful amenities I am surrounded by (like dishwashers). Over the course of the day, it was as if I was continually overwhelmed by HOW MANY blessings I have in my life.
I would like to list a few, for your sake and for mine:
1. Spiritual blessings
This list is not in order, but if it were this would be the top. Paul spoke of all our spiritual blessings (Eph. 1: 3). Salvation, deliverance, heaven forever, Jesus as our King, the abiding Holy Spirit, and the Father, the Source of all blessings. All we can call these are "spiritual riches” for which we should never stop giving God glory.
2. Physical blessings
The ability to walk, breathe, talk, lift, and a thousand other normal motions and actions is fantastic. We could be impaired in hundreds of different ways but God has given us strength, life, and vitality.
3. Family blessings
I give God great glory for my beautiful wife, Melanie. The other night we had most of my six children over with their spouses and our grandchildren. Each and every one of these delight my soul on a daily basis.
4. Financial blessings
Cars, clothes, food, furniture, beds, and literally hundreds of labor-saving devices (like the computer I am typing this on). I marvel at times at how much “junk” we have accumulated and need a garage sale to get rid of. Millions of people worldwide have not a drop of clean water or a comfortable piece of clothing.
5. Relational blessings
I have hundreds of friends in our church who I deeply love. I have hundreds of pastoral contacts with key leaders across the world. I have thousands of contacts with people worldwide through social media who enrich my life with their encouragement and humor. They are each and every one a blessing.
Under Solomon’s rule, “Judah and Israel were as many as the sand by the sea. They ate and drank and were happy…and Judah and Israel lived in safety, from Dan even to Beersheba, every man under his vine and under his fig tree, all the days of Solomon” (1 Kings 4: 20, 25).
We are blessed. Ezekiel called it showers of blessing. Malachi said God would “pour out a blessing so great you won’t have room to take it in.” Try throwing that at pessimism and fatalism. We are drowning in God’s blessings.
Perhaps you should take a moment to think through the blessings in your life. Take inventory on what God has blessed you with and go into this week with a new perspective.