Do you ever get to a place where the reality of “there but for the grace of God go I” hits you? It’s like you go along living your life and suddenly when faced with someone else’s pain there is God’s blessings that go far beyond your comprehension or mind can fathom. I frequently say “why them, God, and not me? Why is it that you have spared me that pain and that heartache and that hurt when they haven’t been spared?” I guess I’ll never know.
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A friend of mine is dating a guy. An acquaintance told her that God blessed her with this guy as a reward because she had been so faithful to Him. I think that’s a lie. God isn’t like a gift catalog, like I’m faithful enough to him and he’ll give me what I want. It’s not even like I’m faithful and he gives me more than my faithfulness deserves. That’d be like God is a PBS “friend-a-thon”. Not true. It isn’t grace because it’s a bigger gift than I’ve earned, it’s grace because I can’t ever earn it.
And I think especially with relationships, you don’t get them because you’ve been faithful. I think God places you in them in His perfect timing and in His perfect way. He is a sovereign God, after all. And His blessings for us, specifically in the form of relationships, are not rewards for us following him–they are placed there to sanctify us.
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Speaking of sactification, isn’t it neat that it’s all by grace? I am saved by grace, and I am being sanctified by grace. God knows what he’s doing and that’s a really cool thing to me. So many times I feel I have to have my life together and I have to do something everything right, but that really isn’t true. God is sovereign, and He knows what he’s doing. I’ve really been reminded recently of God’s plan being perfect, and His timing being perfect in all aspects, and how I need to trust his timing.
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I’m writing a lesson plan on the Israelites and how they wanted a king “like all the other nations” and so they ended up with Saul, who was a really crappy king. God knew they needed a king (though a theocracy was ideal, they fell short of it), but He also had a perfect timing and a perfect place for that. David was a good king, but they had to go through so much mess with Saul to get to David. It’s such a perfect illustration of how in my own life I am so drawn to being impatient. I want a relationship “like all the other girls”. How is that any different than the Israelites? But I can learn from them. If I only trust God’s timing and His plan, He has good things for me.
That’s all.
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Oh, one last thing. Traci asked for this notebook tutorial. I’ve made a few of the notebooks–I used “Aleene’s Tacky Glue” for the spine, which worked really well. The video is really clear…If I remember correctly I had to do a bit of digging to get to the source site for the video before it would play. Let me know if you need that.
-Sarah
jennypo said,
October 24, 2007 at 12:42 am
Sarah, can so relate to this! I asked God this question so many times: “Why does it seem like you’ve given me so much, when others seem to have it so hard?” One day he told me very clearly why he has given me so much. He said, “I didn’t give you these things to make you comfortable. I gave them to you to make you fruitful.”
Then I finally stopped feeling guilty and secretly wondering if God was somehow being unfair, and I realized that my blessings weren’t ONLY blessings, they were also responsibilities – to used what I’ve received to bless others. I have strong family relationships that I don’t have to put a lot of effort into because God wants me to put my energy into OTHER people’s families; I live in a free country because God wants me to use my freedom to set others free.
I agree with you totally that he isn’t dropping down relationships like jelly beans when we give the right answers. We need to realize that everything we receive from God, painful or not, is a blessing. My single life is just as much a blessing from him as your friend’s relationship – God knows what we each need, and that isn’t always the same thing. And it all increases our responsibility to him and to others.
My grandfather used to say, “If everything seems to be coming your way, you might be in the wrong lane.” If he stops blessing us, life might get more comfortable for a little while, but then what?
Our concept of blessing is so shallow. Most of the time, God’s blessings come in packages that we don’t like, and so we never even open them.
Thanks for your thoughts!