When God Blesses, Part 2

God’s blessings require you to change. God’s blessings always end up changing us. Change comes in one of two ways:

Changes that God’s blessings make in us. He changed Abram’s name to Abraham and Sarai’s name to Sarah. When God blesses us, He changes us. When you are a child of God’s He is committed to changing you. Deuteronomy 30:6 says, The LORD your God will change your heart and the hearts of all your descendants, so that you will love him with all your heart and soul and so you may live!

We are (in our own nature) anxious, prone to depression, hurtful, easily angered, prideful, afraid, unbelieving, doubting, fickle people. That is not who we are meant to be in Christ! God is committed to make us new creatures who do not fall into the pitfalls of sin and shame but who reflect the image and character of Christ. God’s blessings are deliberately designed to change us.

Changes that we make. The Bible is very clear that our choices, our decisions, our actions have a direct effect on the blessings we receive or do not receive from God. One of the plainest examples of this is Jeremiah 18:1-10,

The LORD gave another message to Jeremiah. He said, “Go down to the potter’s shop, and I will speak to you there.” So I did as he told me and found the potter working at his wheel. But the jar he was making did not turn out as he had hoped, so he crushed it into a lump of clay again and started over. Then the LORD gave me this message: “O Israel, can I not do to you as this potter has done to his clay? As the clay is in the potter’s hand, so are you in my hand. If I announce that a certain nation or kingdom is to be uprooted, torn down, and destroyed, but then that nation renounces its evil ways, I will not destroy it as I had planned. And if I announce that I will plant and build up a certain nation or kingdom, but then that nation turns to evil and refuses to obey me, I will not bless it as I said I would.

Abraham made the decision to follow God’s direction and to lead his house to do the same and he was blessed because of his obedience. This is no less true for us as it was for him. Our decisions to change or not to change can bring or keep away God’s blessings. That leads directly to the second attitude,

God’s blessings require you to follow His leadership When God’s people take their direction from God and are willing to submit to His authority God promises to bless them. 2 Chronicles 7:14 (ESV) If my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land. God does not just want us to accept Christ as our Savior, He wants us to follow Christ as our Lord. When we follow the will of the Father we will find ourselves being blessed by Him.

God’s blessings require you to trust Him. Psalm 40:4 (ESV) says, Blessed is the man who makes the Lord his trust, who does not turn to the proud, to those who go astray after a lie! And Psalm 34:10 says, Even strong young lions sometimes go hungry, but those who trust in the LORD will lack no good thing. Before you can invite God’s blessings you need to trust Him. You need to trust and believe that He is a God who keeps His promises.

If we want God’s blessings in our lives then we need to be willing to change, to submit to God’s leadership and trust that God will make good on His promises.

We need to be willing to change. We often talk a lot about change. But when it comes right down to it, if we are honest I think we are much more adept at talking about change than actually making change. Change begins with how we think. Romans 12:1-2 says, we need to present our bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is our spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of our mind, that by testing we may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

Circumcision was a big change for Abraham. He was 99 years old! His son Ishmael was thirteen! Abraham was willing to make that change and was willing to lead his people to make that change. I don’t imagine everyone was excited about it. But oh how God blessed him and his descendants for making that change!

Part 3 tomorrow….