The Blessings of God

"The blessings of God are not, typically, prosperity, health and honor. They are instead things like love, joy, peace, patience. Indeed these fruits find their most fertile soil in the context of hardship. The man who meditates on the law of God day and night may not grow a thriving business. He may not be much beloved in his community. But he will mourn his own sins. He will be poor in spirit. He will not enjoy great power, but will be mindful of God’s power, resting in his own meekness. He will hunger and thirst for righteousness. Meditating on the law of God, he will know his sin, his need for mercy, and so will show mercy, making peace even as he suffers under the sins of his enemies." -R.C. Sproul Jr.

I liked this quote by Sproul Jr. as it reminded me to examine the desires of my heart. How easy it is to desire blessings from God that are all about a comfortable life. How I have to train myself, through feeding on Scripture, to desire what I will call the spiritual blessings of God. It is not bad in itself to desire health or financial security but let us examine our hearts by examining our prayer lives. How often do we spend time praying for earthly, temporal, material blessings as opposed to spiritual blessings -such as for the gospel to be formed in us, to understand and truly know Christ (including in his sufferings) and to be conformed to the image of Christ. How often people will ask for prayer for a particular thing going on in their life- for example: help in finding a job, help in getting along with a co-worker or for someone who is having surgery. These are not bad prayer requests but think about how often you hear this type of prayer request or how often you pray for these sorts of things in your own life. Now think about how often you hear prayer requests for things like asking God to show me his holiness and my sinfulness, for me to hate sin and mortify it, for the gospel to be formed in me, for Christ to be magnified and glorified in my life no matter what the cost. Material blessings provided by God are good but how much better are spiritual blessings where Christ is formed in us and which will lead to rewards in heaven. Oh, that God would make me a person who desires Christ above all and spiritual growth above earthly comforts.