Recently I was visiting a friend who is dealing with serious health issues and before leaving I asked how I could be praying for her. She gave me a few things to pray for regarding her illness. Then she asked how she could pray for me. In a nanosecond I mentally assessed my current life and said I am blessed, but could she pray for “so-and-so” about “such-and-such“.
On the way home, I thanked God for how He has blessed me. How He has given me much more than I could have asked for. I thought about the phrase “exceedingly abundantly” from Ephesians 3:20.
But since then I have begun thinking about how when my life is going well, I can sometimes take my relationship with God for granted. I can become complacent about spending time before the Lord, believing that I have everything I need and more. Sometimes being blessed is an excuse to coast in my relationship with Christ.
There are many people in the Bible who struggled in their situations and cried out to God for help. And God blessed them, only to watch them walk right back into a lifestyle of self-dependence. The Israelites did it over and over again.
I have been in the deep places where I couldn’t see the light. And I have cried out to God for help. And He blessed me and lifted me out of the darkness. I have been so grateful that God didn’t leave me in the pit of despair. And it is during those times that I feel so warmly loved and protected by the Almighty.
So when my blessings far outweigh my troubles, why do I sometimes drift from God? Why do I subconsciously begin to depend more on my abilities and less on His grace and provision? In my heart I know that all precious gifts come from the Father. My very salvation isn’t due to anything I have done, but only comes from believing in Jesus Christ.
I want to have an intimate and honoring relationship with God through Christ in times of well-being or distress. I pray that I will always keep in mind where I would be without Him and remember how desperate I would be on my own in this broken world. I want to acknowledge that I always need God. In good times as well as bad. Tomorrow may bring new struggles, so I will praise Him for the blessings of today. I will praise Him for His lovingkindness. I will praise Him for His mercy. And I praise Him that He is only a prayer away.
When we praise God for our blessings, we can see that the real blessings come when we are in communion with the Father. When our hearts are humbled by knowing just how much we are blessed, we are compelled to praise and adore our faithful God. We worship the One who loves us, and the One who loved us so much that He gave himself up for us so we could be forever blessed.
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, Ephesians 1:3
