Blessings In Disguise

Was Job a blessed man? Perhaps that’s a difficult question to answer. It might depend upon when you look at his life. Prior to him losing his children and his wealth, we would confidently say “yes.” During his trial brought upon him by Satan, we would probably say “no.” And if you look at his life after we read in Job 42:10, “the Lord gave him twice as much as before!” Therefore, perspective matters.

How about your own life? Are you blessed? Blessings come in different forms. Hebrews 12:11 says, “All discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful, but sorrowful; yet to those who have been trained by it, afterwards it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness.”

In our country, blessings come with the territory. We expect to have nice things; we expect to have some level of safety. All of those are truly blessings, but those expectations have perhaps warped our idea of what a blessed life looks like.

Similar to the difficulty of Job’s life are words from James in James 1:2-4, “Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials…” Nothing about trails seems joyful, but God must see it differently.

The Lord declares in Isaiah 55:8, “For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways.” So what are His ways? What are His thoughts? Because if we had the ability to see life the way God did, then perhaps we would be more grateful, less stressed, and more like Jesus in what we say and do.

Jesus rebuked the apostles in Matthew 8:24-27, “And behold, there arose a great storm on the sea, so that the boat was being covered with the waves; but Jesus Himself was asleep. And they came to Him and woke Him, saying, ‘Save us, Lord; we are perishing!’ He said to them, ‘Why are you afraid, you men of little faith?’ Then He got up and rebuked the winds and the sea, and it became perfectly calm. The men were amazed, and said, ‘What kind of a man is this, that even the winds and the sea obey Him?’”

What did He know that the apostles didn’t? Shouldn’t Jesus have been afraid, too? Was He completely unconcerned with how His life would turn out? We know there was some fear or reluctance about death, based on His words from the Garden of Gethsemane in Matthew 26:39, “My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; yet not as I will, but as You will.” Would He consider Himself “blessed” at that moment? His words from the cross just a short time later would indicate probably not: “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Matthew 27:46-47)

However, He trusted God with a bigger picture of His time on earth. Jesus knew that the blessing would come later. It was because of His love and obedience to His father that He went to the cross, and it’s because He went to the cross that we now have the Spirit to intercede for us, to guide us, and to strengthen us. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 2:10-13, “The Spirit searches all things, even the depths of God… Even so, the thoughts of God no one knows except the Spirit of God. Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may know the things freely given to us by God, which things we also speak, not in words taught by human wisdom, but in those taught by the Spirit, combining spiritual thoughts with spiritual words….”

To surrender our thinking when tragedy strikes and to remember that God does have a bigger plan, is part of the key to having a blessed life. Our job is faithfulness, trusting Him to deliver us. It’s through that understanding and application that we can more fully grasp how trials can be viewed as joyful, James 1:3-4, “…knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. And let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.”

Remember that we’ve been given a mind like Christ (1 Corinthians 2:16, Philippians 2:5), so trust Him when you have an experience that tempts you to question God. Remember He may be blessing you in an unconventional way.