The Blessing of the Lord Part 1

God’s default position is to bless you

One day as I was driving to work along the M65 towards Blackburn, Lancashire, the rain was coming sideways at us, spray was coming off lorries, windscreen wipers were on full speed and traffic was slowing down due to poor visibility. But gradually the weather changed during the journey. The rain slowed and stopped. The sun began to peep out from behind a cloud and things were calming down although the traffic was still pretty snarled up. I looked to my left, ready to change lane and saw a young lady in her car, shoulders tensed up, leaning over the steering wheel, wipers still on as if it were still raining. She was a true picture of stress and tension. But the weather had changed!

I believe that it’s easy for us to remain in a season of life or a chapter of our story by accident. Whatever 2021 and 2020 did to us, and however we responded, let us never get stuck in the wrong season. Perhaps we’ve battened down the hatches and weathered the storm. Perhaps uncertainty has caused us to hibernate for a while and not take any new decisions. We may even have become passive in our faith or our walk with the Lord. I want to encourage us to remember that while the world around us is changing, God is not. And I want us to recognise that God’s default position is to bless his people.

Listen to these words from Proverbs 10 verse 22:

The blessing of the LORD brings wealth, without painful toil for it.

The NLT puts it this way:

The blessing of the LORD makes a person rich, and he adds no sorrow with it.

I’ve seen people in my life with great wealth, and on my travels I’ve met some who are extremely poor too. One thing I’ve observed is that money does not necessarily mean happiness. Likewise, poor people are not all sad. I’m sure we can all think of people who have money and it’s caused them nothing but worry and bother. Yes, money can buy us fun things and I love all that, but without God’s wisdom it can cause all kinds of problems. The bible says here in this verse that when the Lord blesses, there is no painful toil and no sorrow with it. That’s the kind of blessing I’m interested in!

We have had a difficult few years to say the least. Things have changed forever at a global level. The world will never be the same since COVID-19, Brexit here in the UK and many other global changes. Political, financial, societal changes keep throwing curve balls at us and it’s easy to get stuck in a survival mentality.

But I want to remind us right here in the middle of whatever it is we are going through, that God’s intention is to bless his people. It’s easy to keep the hatches battened down and not even notice that there is change in the air. Like the driver I mentioned just before, we can be so tensed up from what we’ve just experienced that we stay in that mode, stuck in a posture that is no longer needed.

So let’s spend some time thinking about what kind of Father God is. He is bigger than any problem, greater than any global crisis, and his Kingdom will outlast this present world, his glory greater than any eventuality. Can we spend a little while recalibrating our minds to the greater reality of who God is? In doing so, I wish to build our faith in a God who’s default position is to bless.

What kind of a dad is God?

I don’t know what your view is of a perfect father. I know I’m not one. But I do want my kids to be blessed. Right now I have a son in Manchester who is doing his best to find work to pay his rent and pay college fees. I have a daughter who has a spirit of adventure and dreams to go with it that are way out of my budget. I do what I can within the limits placed upon me, but I pray with a real passion that God would bless them, keep them healthy and give them wisdom in living for him. I want my kids to be blessed, and I’m evil!

OK I’m not evil in the way that sounded – I’m holy and righteous through the blood of the Lamb – but compared with God’s holiness I’ll never be the prefect dad.

Look at these scriptures with me and ask yourself what kind of a dad God really is.

Put aside your preconceived ideas, your caveats that you’ve created in order to explain away hardships, take the word of God at face value and listen / read these scriptures with an open mind.

⁷ “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. ⁸ For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.

⁹ “Which of you, if your son asks for bread, will give him a stone? ¹⁰ Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? ¹¹ If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!

Matthew 7:7-11

Your heavenly Father wants to give good gifts to you. Before we start rationalising this and explaining what God would describe as ‘good gifts’ and what we want, just receive that information gladly about the character of our God. He loves us. He is love, perfect love. And he is good. He wants you to be blessed. Throughout the following weeks we will see more and more that God’s default position is to bless us. Much has been said about this in the Christian world in extremes, but we want to gain a balance of scripture. So let’s not rush. Let’s enjoy the ride and mull over what the bible is actually saying as a whole.

¹¹ For the Lord God is a sun and shield; the Lord bestows favour and honour; no good thing does he withhold from those whose way of life is blameless.

¹² Lord Almighty, blessed is the one who trusts in you.

Psalm 84:11-12

The Lord is a sun and a shield. His default position is to shine his light and warmth on you and shield you from the dangers of both night and day. He bestows favour and honour because it’s what he does – it’s in his character to do so. He loves his children. Why would a God of love withhold any good thing to those whose way is blameless? Well, I know my way hasn’t been blameless, either as a father or husband, employee or citizen. But thanks be to God, I can accept forgiveness and not walk in guilt. Because of Jesus my way IS blameless! So why would I expect him to withhold any good thing from me? Let us trust in him today to give us what we need, to bless us and our families, and let us be expectant, based on his character, not ours.

His character as a Father is something to be marvelled at.

One more verse before we wrap things up:

Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.

James 1:17

We have much to be thankful for. This verse tells us that every good and perfect gift comes from God. He made the stars that light up the night and he does not change.

Action Points

• Thank God that he is a good Father. Spend some time thinking about ways in which he has shown himself to be a Father to you. Reflect on his goodness in your life.
• Bring your problems to him. We are told in the bible to cast our cares upon the Lord because he cares for us. No problem is off limits. No problem is bigger than God. If it feels that way, you have the wrong idea of God. Ask him in to your situation today.
• Begin to expect good things from a good Father who wants to bless us. I believe that there are hidden treasures in the year ahead. We could easily miss them if our eyes are not on him and our ears inattentive to his voice. Pray with expectation and look for evidence that he will bless you in the days that lie ahead.

Next Time

A deeper dive into how the bible depicts a God who wants to bless us – from Genesis to Revelation!