So Blessed
“Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth.” Col. 3:2
So blessed you’re on the mend. So blessed you’re getting rest. So blessed you’re in my life. Blessed. I wrote the words quickly as they poured from my heart as I wrote a friend and sister in the Lord who was healing from a medical procedure. Suddenly it came to me. Was I writing about being blessed? Was love pouring from my heart? Was encouragement coming forth on the keyboard of my laptop computer as I wrote my friend? Had I just not more than an hour or so before been preaching exuberantly God’s Word to a new friend and sister in the Lord who was entrenched in some of the same battles I was for decades? Was I filled with the Spirit of the Lord? Calling myself blessed? Was this the same woman who just hours before had been so down, discouraged, heavy laden, frustrated, bitter, filled with impatience, anger, and exasperation as I faced an ongoing trial? Yes! What had happened? How had I undergone such an unbelievable transformation in such an incredibly short period of time? Me? The woman who used to be so bound up in my troubles that for literally decades I couldn’t break free from them? In a single day, could I have experienced such a turnaround from feeling dejected and downtrodden to being filled with the love of the Lord and pouring out His glory onto others He so graciously and mercifully pours into me? Yes!
What had changed? Two things. I had repented of my sins that had filled my heart making more room for God’s Spirit. And I had taken my focus off myself, my trial, and feelings and placed it onto God, His Word, and His endless spiritual blessings. I used to be so obsessed with getting a dark suntan I had to be virtually dragged off the beach at day’s end. I remember being upset when clouds would pass over me, casting their shadow over my body and making it clear I would miss precious minutes, if not hours, of the sunshine I was so desperate to have pour forth over my body to make it ever browner. Oh, what delight I found when I peered up at the sky as the clouds shifted out of the way and the sun regained its blessed prominence in the sky. The sun had been there all along of course. The clouds had covered it. I was so distraught when I focused on the clouds, and so joyful when I felt the sun’s rays burst forth again.
We weren’t created to focus on life’s trials, but to love and serve the Lord with all our hearts and to learn to live by His Word by the power of His Spirit through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. There is no greater blessing than God and His beloved Son Jesus. Let us bask in the blessings of the sunshine of His glorious holy love! So blessed.
Are you? Do you need to shift your focus? Set your mind on things above. Set your heart on the Lord & His Word! Rejoice in Christ! Rejoice!