Blessings
"Most people treat God like a parachute. We want it to be always there, but hoping to never use it."
The Beatitudes — sermon of Jesus about blessings on the top of a mountain — is perhaps not the first thing that cross our minds when we hear the word blessing. Perhaps not at all.
Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.
Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.
Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.
Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.
Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
We pray for blessings in our lives. We associate blessings with goodness in this life way too often. Long lives, health, good family, secure job, money, etc. We want to he happy according to our own concept of happiness. We want to be blessed according to our own concept of blessings. We have standards and we pray for God to fulfill them.
Then Jesus came, "blessed are you who mourn!" Wait.. why, how? At times, it’s really hard to see trials and pain in life as blessings. Even if we’ve seen God’s goodness and faithfulness in the past, we’re sometimes still tempted to ask "why?" instead of just trust Him and walk by faith. We don’t feel blessed in hard times.
Hardships often bring us down on our knees, pleading for help and relief from Him. But do hardships ever bring us to praise Him wholeheartedly, knowing His blessings are still there? I’m still struggling with it. I really want to give an honest praise instead of gripes in hard times. As an ancient Greek proverbs once said, “Hard times show what men really are.” I believe real men and women give praise in all situations, for they know God is sovereign.
May we all treat God as God, not a mere wish granter, and never as a parachute.
