By Caro July 22, 2022
Our Heavenly Father is so generous. When we follow His ways, He leads us into wonderful blessings. But let’s be careful, if we don’t take good care of these beautiful fruits of God, they can rot and poison our lives.
The Bible is a book of instructions that shows us the right way to follow not only to honor God but also to walk in His blessing. We do not do His will for the purpose of obtaining rewards, but we obtain all kinds of blessings because God leads us on the path of success out of love. So yes, sometimes we get what we want because we have followed God’s precepts. Several verses confirm this. “This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it; for then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will achieve success” (Joshua 1:8 NASB) “Delight yourself in the Lord; and He will give you the desires of your heart” (Psalms 37:4 NASB).
But while everyone hopes to live in comfort, success, and abundance, there is also a danger when we get to that level. When we are in pain, we recognize our need for God, our eyes are fixed on Him, and we pay attention to what we do, say, think in order to find His grace. But when our needs are met, we can fall into a kind of spiritual slumber. This is what happened to King David who, while basking in the terraces of his palace, saw Bathsheba and sinned with her. Jesus also warned us of this danger with the parable of the man who had become rich and who wanted to enlarge his barns to store all his wealth. “And I will say to myself, “You have many goods stored up for many years to come; relax, eat, drink, and enjoy yourself!”’ But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your soul is demanded of you; and as for all that you have prepared, who will own it now?’” (Luke 12:19-20 NASB)
Success can also inflate our pride if we are not careful. We can take credit for our success. “Otherwise, you may say in your heart, ‘My power and the strength of my hand made me this wealth.’ But you are to remember the Lord your God, for it is He who is giving you power to make wealth, in order to confirm His covenant which He swore to your fathers, as it is this day” (Deuteronomy 8:17-18 NASB). And this is also why a great wise man prayed: “Two things I have asked of You; do not refuse me before I die: Keep deception and lies far from me, give me neither poverty nor riches; feed me with the food that is my portion, so that I will not be full and deny You and say, “Who is the Lord?” And that I will not become impoverished and steal, and profane the name of my God” (Proverbs 30:7-9 NASB).
If we often talk about material wealth in this context, the same is also true of dating. Meeting a partner after God’s heart is a great blessing we have received from God. But this great blessing can become dangerous if we take credit for it. “It was by doing this or that that I found my partner.” Yes, we have steps to take, but we take the steps that God tells us to take. So if we get this blessing, it’s not by our works, but by the grace of God. We must be prepared to give this answer when people ask us what we did to meet our partner.
Just like obtaining wealth, we must also be prepared not to fall into spiritual slumber now that we are dating. It is easy to forget God when we are in a relationship, focused on our earthly needs. To prevent our blessing from becoming our spiritual death, we must be on guard and careful not to neglect our relationship with God by keeping our faith active daily through prayer, the study of the Word, and service in our congregation.