God's Ultimate Blessing

What is the Ultimate Blessing of God? Many within and without Christianity surmise that such a blessing is riches, power, big houses and fleets of vehicles. Others say the ultimate blessing is nonstop good health, food and pleasure. 

A person viewing God’s ultimate blessing in those terms may be disappointed by Jesus’ statements at Matthew 5:1-12. There Jesus shows us that the ultimate blessing is about relationship with God.

In Psalm 24, David expresses his confidence in who God is and the ultimate blessing God imparts: an intimate relationship with Himself, the Most High God, Sovereign over all! That blessing comprises His saving grace, a right standing before Him, and His desire for us to live into His moral will. Ephesians describes that relationship with God as “in Christ;” in Him we are bathed in an outpouring of all spiritual blessings from His hand. (Ephesians 1) From those blessings come provision for all our needs. (Phil 4:19). 

In this ultimate blessing, we are drawn into His spiritual family and made joint heirs with Christ. We come to know God in that ultimate blessing as Father, and the more intimate Abba Father. Do we truly comprehend what God offers us – a blessing beyond anything we can ever imagine? (Ephesians 3:20-21; Colossians 1:9-14; 2:2) Too often, though, we short-shrift God’s blessing, His promised presence in our lives, because we don’t get what we want from Him. Brothers and sisters, God does not promise to satisfy our every fleshly desire and whim; His promise is to be always present with those who love Him, guiding us to His best for our lives. (Psalm 23; 139:1-6, 16-18)

As we live into God’s ultimate blessing, are we not filled with the desire to praise Him with our words and behavior, to be His living gospel, to not embarrass Him? We are His children, Christ’s siblings! Should we not pray and listen to Him, obey His Word? Jesus declares that obedience to God’s will and Word is the essence of worship. (John 14:15, 23-24) We are embraced in that relationship by the full Godhead, and there is nothing or no one – not even ourselves – that can separate us from that love. (John 10:28-29; Romans 8:35, 38-39) Are we living into God’s blessing? Do we understand that an intimate relationship with God and to glorify Him and enjoy Him forever is His greatest desire for us? Everything else flows from there. (Habakkuk 3:17-19; Philippians 4:4-7)

By contrast, the psalmist clearly admonishes in Psalm 24 that those who reject the LORD as Sovereign, and pursue a lifestyle contrary to His moral law, cannot enjoy that ultimate blessing of intimacy with Him. Let us never spurn God’s ultimate blessing, but continually seek His presence and learn His will! (Hebrews 6:1-6; Isaiah 44:22; 55:7; Psalm 32; Ephesians1:17-19)

If Jesus showed up...

If Jesus showed up at your school, house, on your date, recreation place, in your crew, or while you were on your computer, would He like what He saw?

Think about it…cuz He already has…

SCRIPTURE MEDITATION

Psalm 139:1-16

1 Lord, you have examined me
    and know all about me.
² You know when I sit down and when I get up.
    You know my thoughts before I think them.
³ You know where I go and where I lie down.
    You know everything I do.
⁴ Lord, even before I say a word,
    you already know it.
⁵ You are all around me—in front and in back—
    and have put your hand on me.
⁶ Your knowledge is amazing to me;
    it is more than I can understand.

⁷ Where can I go to get away from your Spirit?
    Where can I run from you?
⁸ If I go up to the heavens, you are there.
    If I lie down in the grave, you are there.
⁹ If I rise with the sun in the east
    and settle in the west beyond the sea,
¹⁰ even there you would guide me.
    With your right hand you would hold me.

¹¹ I could say, “The darkness will hide me.
    Let the light around me turn into night.”
¹² But even the darkness is not dark to you.
    The night is as light as the day;
    darkness and light are the same to you.

¹³ You made my whole being;
    you formed me in my mother’s body.
¹⁴ I praise you because you made me in an amazing and wonderful way.
    What you have done is wonderful.
    I know this very well.
¹⁵ You saw my bones being formed
    as I took shape in my mother’s body.
When I was put together there,
¹⁶ you saw my body as it was formed.
All the days planned for me
    were written in your book
    before I was one day old.

Please share.

Living the Abundant Life

Jesus came so that we could have real life, and have it more abundantly (John 10:10), so that with the psalmist we can say "my cup runneth over." 

Persons called by God to be his children and joint heirs with Christ – the elect - are privileged to be able to quote that verse without hesitation. (Psalm 23)  As children of the Most High, Almighty God, and heirs with Christ why shouldn’t our ‘cups’ be running over? We who now are indwelt by the Holy Spirit of God, and who thus are in the bosom of God are in a better place than we’ve ever been in this life! What can we need but that God in His marvelous riches cannot fulfill? (Ephesians 1:3, 18-20; 1 John 3:1) Those persons walking in His will are assured by God and Christ that we can approach the throne with all boldness and be heard (Hebrews 4:14-16), and that whatever we ask in His will He will grant. (1 John 5:13-14) Our cups runneth over – what else can we need? Each breath we take and each beat of our heart comes through the goodness of God. Even in times of great distress, pain, agony, and mourning our cups runneth over because the God of all creation is there as we walk in the valley of the shadow – He’s promised that! (also John 16:33; 14:18) We need to remind ourselves of that truth and Godly promise. When our enemies encamp about us, whom shall we fear? Do we really understand how extraordinary this is? (Isaiah 41:12,13)

And this is how God feels about us and cares for us - recall John 10 where Christ is identified as our Shepherd who laid down His own life for His sheep—us! (Also John 14:1-4). Because we know that as those called by God for His purpose and who love Him, that God will transform and use every circumstance of our lives and the power of His Holy Spirit to bless us for good and to bring us into the likeness of His Son. (Romans 8:9-11, 14-18, 26-30) His greatest desire for our lives is a loving relationship with Him, and a yielding heart to His will for us as He makes us like the Son. Being transformed by the power of this Gospel, and living a transformed life, we can be like Christ to one another and to the world. If our cups runneth over now, in this life, can you imagine what it will be like in glory???

God’s eternal blessings be yours,

"I have set the LORD always before me. Because he is at my right hand, I will not be shaken.."   Psalm 16:8