What’s Your Definition?

“My definition of blessing looked like a perfect life where everyone is happy and healthy and has plenty of everything. I thought it meant a reward for a life well lived — sort of a carrot-and-stick philosophy. The carrot included all the protective blessings I thought God promised. The stick was His discipline if I chose to go against Him, the consequences I knew came with disobedience.”

Has anyone else shared the same definition of blessing? According to the devotional where I read the above statement, it went on to say “to be blessed actually means to be fully satisfied…to be so filled with the joy of the Holy Spirit within that we are able to endure and taste the sweetness of His love even in the midst of bitter reality. Even when it hurts, even when we do not understand.”

Does that change your perspective of the first quote? I don’t know about you, but I have felt God’s presence more when I’ve been in the valley than when everything in my life is going great. We’ve talked already about how God doesn’t promise us a life of “easy,” but He also promised to “never leave us or forsake us” and that is especially true when we’re walking through some hard times.

I’m so glad God wants a relationship with us, and that we can trust Him to have the answers we need to whatever we’re facing today.

Do you believe that? Do you believe you can trust God with the answers to what you’re facing today?

© Cheri Swalwell 2021