Most people want to be blessed by God. How do we obtain God's blessing? Once we received Jesus as our Lord and Savior, we are God's children. God is our father, and he wants us to address him as father. The disciples asked Jesus to model a prayer for them and he opened the prayer by addressing God as 'Our Father, who art in Heaven...' God asked us to think of him as a father because he wanted us to see our relationship with him like a father and child.
And since we are his children, we are his heirs. In fact, together with Christ
we are heirs of God's glory. But if we are to share his glory, we must also
share his suffering. Romans 8:17
So, as his children, how do we obtain his blessing? Just think of a father and a child. If a child gets angry and fusses and complains and carries on, how many of us as parents blesses our children for this kind of behavior? Most do not bless their children for this kind of behavior, most of us discipline our children and withhold blessings when they behave like this.
IF a child throws a fit because they did not get what they wanted, and questions our every decision and accuses us of being evil parents or being mean and harsh, unloving, uncaring...most of us do not reward this kind of behavior. This kind of behavior is more likely to get a spanking or a time out.
Have you ever felt like your life was in a time out? Have you ever felt like you pray and pray and pray, and nothing happens, nothing changes, you are just stuck in one spot. Look at the words coming out of your mouth when you are not praying. Look at the attitude of your heart. Look at what you say to others and to yourself. Sometimes the way we rant and rave and accuse and slander and carry on about our situation, we look just like a child that is mad and throwing a fit because we did not get our way. And God puts us in a time out, a rut, nothing much to do but sit in the same ole corners all the time, doing the same ole things.
If we want God to bless us, we are going to have to be a blessing to him! How do we do this? Think as a parent how your child blesses you. We feel blessed when our child does what we ask without slandering us or giving us a fuss about it. We feel blessed when our child says, "I love you" not only to our face, but to say "I love my mom or dad", to others when we are not there as well. Just imagine how many good things you would want to do for a child that started bragging on you all over town? Just imagine how much you would bless your child if they climbed up in your lap, and said, "you are the best." When was the last time you darkened the church door, to go to your Father's house? When was the last time you bragged on God to others? When was the last time you told someone else how good God was to you? When was the last time you spent time with your Father, just because you loved him?
If our kids behaved like this we would say, "Ok, what do you want?" And a lot of the time we would get them what they asked for, just for their effort...we know how to bless our parents to turn their favor towards us, but, we fail to understand that man was made in the image of God.
God is more likely to bless us, when we have been a blessing to him. As the psalmist said
"Praise the Lord, O my soul; all my inmost being, praise his holy name."
In this world, it pays to bless the LORD, not just with your mouth, but in the inner recesses of your heart. It is simple, a Father is more likely to bless a child that has blessed him, it is just that simple!
In Psalms 34 we see King David saying,
"I will bless the LORD at all times: his praise shall continually be in my mouth. My soul shall make its boast in the LORD: the humble shall hear thereof, and be glad. O magnify the LORD with me, and let us exalt his name together.
Now, someone may think, well, he must have been having a good day when he said this. Well, actually he was not having a good day, but a bad day. This was a Psalm of David when he pretended madness before Abimelech, who drove him away, and he departed. He had to pretend he was a mad man before the KING, or he would have lost his life. That is not a good day...Imagine having to pretend you were a mad man before the president of the USA, in order to save your life. Yep, not a good day, yet, he praises the LORD on this terrible day. Why? Because he understood that if he wanted his Father God to bless him, he was going to have to be a blessing to his Father.
We get a hang nail, and fuss and rant and rave and throw a fit. We get a flat tire and rail, and rage and complain and fuss...then we go to God and ask for a blessing...But, where we end up is in time out...a life in a rut that seems to never go anywhere, in time out. We end up in a time out because we deserved it, we needed it, we have a bad attitude that should not be rewarded!
Psalm 96 O sing unto the LORD a new song: sing unto the LORD, all the earth.
Sing unto the LORD, bless his name; show forth his salvation from day to day.
Declare his glory among the nations, his wonders among all people.
The next time you think you had a bad day and you have earned a right to rant, and fuss, and cuss, and fume...just remember God is listening to you every minute of the day, he doesn't just hear our prayers, but he is attentive to us every minute of the day. Don't ask God for a blessing, when you KNOW you really need be in a time out! Bless God with your mouth, your attitude and your actions no matter what your situations, and you will find that in a little while, God will get you out of 'time out' and He will bless your life over and over again!
