Regional Synod of Canada - Reformed Church in America

Pioneer Christian Monthly

Date - Oct/78

Contributor - Peter J. Yff

Title - Evidence of God's Blessing

Topic - Blessings

If you speak to our world about blessing, you might get a strange response. Assuming you were talking with somebody who at least understood something of what the word suggests, his idea would very likely, be rather materialistic. Perhaps he would think of abundance of food, or good health, or a pleasant home, or something of the sort.

There are many in the Christian church who share such viewpoints. The thanksgiving prayer o many a Christian earlier this month probably began, and perhaps even ended, with a recital of all the material things with which God had blessed him and his family.

Others in the church have a related view, even though they might dispute the statement. When, for example, we suggest that a large or generous offering be regarded as "seed money", which God will richly repay in terms of many more dollars, one is tempted to ask whether his giving is truly an offering to the Lord, or participation in some kind of spiritual lottery. Challenging people to put a hundred dollars in the offering plate ought not to be approached in terms of the Lord giving perhaps ten thousand dollars back.

The evidence of God's blessing is first of all, and after all, spiritual. Paul stressed it when he observed, "Not that I complain of want; for I have learned, in whatever state I am, to be content. I know how to be abased, and I know how to abound; in any and all circumstances I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and want. I can do all things in him who strengthens me."(Philippians 4: 1113.) In similar vein Paul observes, "There is great gain in godliness with contentment." The apostle had just condemned those who would use "godliness as a means of gain." (See Timothy 6: 5, 6.) Paul reminds his readers that with food and necessities one should be content, for we can take nothing of the physical world with us.

Where then is the evidence of God's blessing seen? It is experienced in the heart first of all. It may be in the way you are drawn closer to God because a service in the church touched your heart. It may be in the joy, the surge of emotion you felt, as you knelt to help another along the way. It may be in the way you felt after having gone to see someone in trouble, and were able to help, to give a bit of new courage, or to provide better insight. His problem could then be understood better, not only, but your own growth as a person advanced too, and you rejoiced.

The evidence of God's blessing is not first experienced in the things God gives, or allows us to get. The evidence is first internal. It may include more, or less, of things. To think that the evidence of God's blessing results in a fine house or tine furniture or an expensive car is a dangerous procedure. Some of the most spiritual people I know would be considered well below the poverty line. Others would be considered very wealthy. For both groups, however, the evaluation of material things would be very similar.

I have known spiritual giants who could scarcely stand erect because of deformity and pain. I have known people who radiated spiritual power, even though physical weakness made hands tremble and knees falter. I have known people with every evidence of material blessing - at least so folk around them thought - who were miserable, afraid, and ineffective at living, notwithstanding the money with which they tried to live.

How do you measure the evidence of God's blessing? Perhaps first by not being concerned with what seems to be the extent of his blessing. Rather, you experience it when you come to realize that in everything God is present, working for the good of his own. You know it when his Spirit bears witness with your spirit that you are a child of God. It grows as you live with him, and serve him in daily life. It becomes stronger, this sense of God's blessing, when you help another with his burden, and your own load seems to become lighter. You might forget about it entirely.

God wants to bless his people, but his blessing is not always physical. His blessing includes sufficient grace to master and to use the physical, and to grow in the spiritual.

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