Psalm 73
I think that the Psalmist points out something very important in these verses, that prosperity has nothing to do with righteousness, power has nothing to do with righteousness, popularity has nothing to do with righteousness. There is a segment of Christianity that would say 'if you follow God, God will bless you abundantly' and what they mean is that you will get the things that you want to get. It is called the Prosperity Gospel and in my opinion it has greatly missed the mark as far as understanding what Jesus taught. The amount of money in your bank account has next to nothing to do with the amount of blessings in your life, the size of your house, your car, your boat have next to nothing to do with the amount of blessings in your life, your physical health has next to nothing to do with the amount of blessings in your life. You can be happy healthy and wise and be blessed, you can be sorrowful sick and dumb and be blessed, and you can be anywhere along the spectrum and be blessed.
What Jesus does say is that if we follow him we will have life and we will have it to the full. I believe that what Jesus meant is that if we follow him that we will actually live the life that we have been given, and we will live it in such a way that our experience will be deeper than those who do not follow Jesus's way. We will experience our joy more deeply, and our sorrow more deeply. We will experience every aspect of life to the full, what others gloss over we will be alive inside of. Compassion is not the realm of the lazy, sacrifice is not for the faint of heart, love is not for those who are lukewarm. In order to carry our cross daily we must be alive in each moment, we must be aware of what is going on around us, we must have open ears, open eyes, open hands, and open hearts.
Sometimes the righteous live on the street and the wicked prosper. Sometimes the righteous are mocked and the wicked uplifted. Sometimes the righteous are in tears and the wicked are in parties. Ones social standing is not congruent to ones blessings, and so it is not an easy road that Jesus calls us to walk upon, but it is one where we are able to find abundant life.
+ When you hear the word blessing what comes to mind?
+ How have you seen examples of the wicked prospering and the righteous seemingly weak?
Blessings, to me, are anything that God provides for us.
ReplyDeleteSome people wonder why I am still in Anderson when I didn’t finish seminary. I am here because God provides for me here. I am truly blessed even though some people don’t like to hear that I am on disability. I am sick yet God provides or blesses me daily.