Two reasons why we don't like to hear that God wants to bless us
I used to cringe every time I heard that God wanted to bless me.
"What a selfish message!" I would say, "Don't they know that the world is dark, cold and savage? Have they no concept of what life is really like? Full of death and adversity and at every stage, never knowing when your time will come, when the flowers will fade? Life isn't it all rosy and pink."
There are two reasons that many believers may say things like this.
1) Life has taught them to fear.
When you live in a country marred by decades of war, you are taught to expect the worst. Yet I have found this principle all over the world, in rich and poor, developed and developing, peaceful and warring nations alike. Life teaches us. See the world in the eyes of the world, you will see it as a place where loved ones are taken, sickness comes and riches are lost.
Yet we have Christ and He is the Life! He sent His Spirit to teach otherwise, that Life and Life abundantly is His will! He took the curse (Gal 3, Deut 28), even became cursed that we may never be cursed with the world. This is why we must see life, not as the world, but as sons and daughters of the Most High. We must let the Great Teacher, the Spirit, our inheritance, teach us Life! Life should never ring sarcastically from your lips... it should always be a word of praise and joy.
2) We are under the law.
Believers of Jesus, under His Grace, are very often under the law. Jesus came to break the Old Covenant - if only Moses had kept it broken! Ok, you might not like those words, but Paul spoke of it as an "obsolete" covenant, one that was over and would soon "disappear" (Heb 8:13). I believe the Spirit inspired him to say those words of prophecy concerning the destruction of the Temple, as the clearest sign to all that the Old Covenant was fulfilled and finished!
People under the Old Covenant mindset - though they are in His grace - view God very differently than those under the New Covenant mindset. They think God is out there to catch them sinning and when He does He is sure to cause calamities in their lives. Those who think like this give no honor to the sacrifice of Christ on the cross, nor do they understand what the Son of God crucified really means!
How do you see God?
Somewhere it has been said that we are created in His image (yes, I know it's in Genesis!). Ironically, we tend to create God in our image too and very often that imaging of God turns out to be completely false. That's because we tend to extrapolate to God what we experience in this world and how we see ourselves. This is why many who have experienced hardships see God as the source of their hardships (to varying degrees). It is also why many who have hard hearts also see God as a hard-hearted God!
I want to invite you today to rethink who God is, who you are and what kind of Life God really wants for you. He is full of Grace and Truth. He looks at you, not to harm you or stumble you, but to raise you up, with delight He see's you, His child, His son, His daughter... if you only could see His eyes, they are lit up with your reflection!
David Roiel
The Green Leaf Blog-Discover your inheritance!
"What a selfish message!" I would say, "Don't they know that the world is dark, cold and savage? Have they no concept of what life is really like? Full of death and adversity and at every stage, never knowing when your time will come, when the flowers will fade? Life isn't it all rosy and pink."
There are two reasons that many believers may say things like this.
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| Courtesy of Flickr |
When you live in a country marred by decades of war, you are taught to expect the worst. Yet I have found this principle all over the world, in rich and poor, developed and developing, peaceful and warring nations alike. Life teaches us. See the world in the eyes of the world, you will see it as a place where loved ones are taken, sickness comes and riches are lost.
Yet we have Christ and He is the Life! He sent His Spirit to teach otherwise, that Life and Life abundantly is His will! He took the curse (Gal 3, Deut 28), even became cursed that we may never be cursed with the world. This is why we must see life, not as the world, but as sons and daughters of the Most High. We must let the Great Teacher, the Spirit, our inheritance, teach us Life! Life should never ring sarcastically from your lips... it should always be a word of praise and joy.
2) We are under the law.
Believers of Jesus, under His Grace, are very often under the law. Jesus came to break the Old Covenant - if only Moses had kept it broken! Ok, you might not like those words, but Paul spoke of it as an "obsolete" covenant, one that was over and would soon "disappear" (Heb 8:13). I believe the Spirit inspired him to say those words of prophecy concerning the destruction of the Temple, as the clearest sign to all that the Old Covenant was fulfilled and finished!
People under the Old Covenant mindset - though they are in His grace - view God very differently than those under the New Covenant mindset. They think God is out there to catch them sinning and when He does He is sure to cause calamities in their lives. Those who think like this give no honor to the sacrifice of Christ on the cross, nor do they understand what the Son of God crucified really means!
How do you see God?
Somewhere it has been said that we are created in His image (yes, I know it's in Genesis!). Ironically, we tend to create God in our image too and very often that imaging of God turns out to be completely false. That's because we tend to extrapolate to God what we experience in this world and how we see ourselves. This is why many who have experienced hardships see God as the source of their hardships (to varying degrees). It is also why many who have hard hearts also see God as a hard-hearted God!
I want to invite you today to rethink who God is, who you are and what kind of Life God really wants for you. He is full of Grace and Truth. He looks at you, not to harm you or stumble you, but to raise you up, with delight He see's you, His child, His son, His daughter... if you only could see His eyes, they are lit up with your reflection!
David Roiel
The Green Leaf Blog-Discover your inheritance!
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