I want to drive you to deeper thought.  My desire is to cause us to think about what we say as well as the thought behind what we say.  I admit, that some of what I am about to challenge you with are things I say and think. I have no agenda in writing other than the musings of a man who wants desperately to be true to the Creator and His Word – His Will.

• I hear us say, “God blessed me with a wonderful family.” But what does that mean to and about the Christian who has a broken family?
• I hear us say, “God blessed me with a wonderful spouse.” But what does that say about the single Christian who longs to marry but has not found someone to be their husband or wife?
• I hear us say, “God blessed me with wonderful children.” Yet there are Christian couples who would make great parents, but are unable to have children.
• I hear some say, “I am blessed to live in the United States.” Then I think about the Christians suffering in poor and developing countries or countries where being a Christian can get you killed and wonder, “What does God have against them?”
• I hear us say, “God blessed me with this job.” Why are those blessings withheld from other Christians who need employment to care for their families?
• I hear us say, “God blessed me with health.” Does that mean God cursed your brother in Christ with cancer?
• We consider a house a blessing from God when others Christians live in poor conditions.

Are you with me? Do you understand my thoughts? What makes you so special that God would bless you and not others?

Does God really concern Himself with my physical abundance and my financial affluence?

Isn’t this what Job, Eliphaz, Bildad, Zophar, and Elihu debate in the book of Job?  Their entire theology was that God blesses the good, the righteous, with physical blessings. Now that Job had lost his blessings, it must be that he had done something to lose God’s favor. In the end, God taught Job that all Job needed was to trust God and that all Job needed was God. Nothing else mattered.

Nothing else matters.

Jesus, the Christ, God in the flesh tells us in Matthew 6:25-34,

²⁵ “Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? ²⁶ Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?²⁷ And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life?^[a] 28 And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, ²⁹ yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. ³⁰ But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? ³¹ Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ ³² For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. ³³ But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.

³⁴ “Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.

God’s concern is that we have what we need and that we serve Him. He does not promise any more. When I brag on what I think are my blessings, do I harm the faith of those who do not have the same privileges? I also wonder, “Are these comforts blessings or can they become snares?”

There more I consider these things, the more I am convince that God’s concern is more about my faith and focus on Him.

-Scott

If you have an answer, please let me know . . .