Name It. Claim It.

“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ:” Ephesians 1:3

    Name it. Claim it. Claim this. Claim that. Money. Stuff. Healing. A house. A job. A changed husband. Whatever I wanted. I named it. I waved my hot pink magic wand. Then I exclaimed emphatically with all the “faith” I could muster, “I claim it!” I tossed my wand aside and marched off to my wand-waving friends and pronounced, “I’m believing God for this or that.” Then I waited for payday. And waited.  It’s a good thing I wasn’t holding my breath because I’d still be holding it all these years later. Payday rarely came. I didn’t end up getting most of what I named and claimed. Often, I got just the opposite or nothing at all. I had been taught that all I needed was enough faith and to speak the right words to get what I wanted. Never mind what God wanted. His will wasn’t factored into the name it-claim it false teaching I was under. What a tragedy!

But the tragedy wasn’t that God didn’t give me most of what I wanted. It was that I was so caught up in trying to get God to give me the goods that I completely missed what God wanted to give me. Himself – and what today is a breathtakingly beautiful and everlasting relationship with Him!

I was so consumed with what I could see, touch, taste, feel, and hear, so enamored with the temporal, so hungry for fulfillment from what I could hold in my hands and arms, so full of lust for my flesh to be satisfied, so desperate for the emotional pain in my life to be gone, and so caught up in the false teaching I was under that was so focused on the tangible and material that I wanted to wave my magic wand more than I wanted God.

I was taught that blessings are what we hold in our hands and keep in our pocketbooks. I didn’t believe in Santa Claus. I didn’t need him. I thought God was supposed to be Santa. How despicable was my sin of looking to God as my sugar daddy instead of my Father in heaven before whom I needed to bow down in love, reverence, adoration, and obedience. I wouldn’t trade the awesome relationship I have with Him now for anything I was resolved to name and claim on this earth. Am I grateful for my material and tangible blessings? Absolutely. Am I thankful for my relationships with humans? Yes.

But now I have the greatest blessing of all. The Lord. And I have all the spiritual blessings He offers us through faith in Christ – love, peace, joy, hope, the promise of eternity with God, and on and on. Are the Lord, His spiritual blessings, and His will for your life your greatest desire?