I think I finally agree with my
Pastor, I am a “ponderer.” He coined that word to describe me because he says I
often ponder. In the course of my recent
pondering, it has become clearer to me that one can be blessed several times
over, but end up in hell: that would not be our portion in the name of Jesus. I
know you have heard it severally but the “blessings” do not in any way suggest
that God is happy with a believer. He
can bless you over and over again yet He considers you evil and vile. He leaves
you with the blessings though He sees you returning to your vomit or dirt over
and over again. Please be very careful as God “blesses” you; be careful to
check that He is pleased with your life. We need to keep checking our lives
over and over again to confirm that God is pleased with us.
1 Kings 21: 25 “no
one else so completely sold himself to what was evil in the Lord’s sight as
Ahab did under the influence of his wife Jezebel.
When I think on God and Ahab, I
am amazed that despite that he is declared the most evil of the kings of
Israel, he ruled for several years and was “blessed” and God even paid
attention to his prayers of repentance when he remembered to repent. Isn’t it
amazing that even after he took Naboth’s vineyard and God sent Elijah to him
with a hard word; just because he repented in sack cloth and ashes God sent
Elijah back with a word of comfort? This
is beyond me. I wonder, should God have shown him mercy and punished his
children instead? I think he deserved to have been punished himself; even if it
was just so that other people would see and know that God was angry about what
he did to Naboth and also that no one would do the same having seen the weight
of God’s anger that Ahab suffered. I would have thought that punishing him
would be the wise and just thing to do but it is not so with God. The ways and
wisdom of God are different. Even His thoughts are far from ours.
1 Kings 21: 28 - 29
“Then another message from the Lord came to Elijah: ‘Do you see how Ahab has
humbled himself before me? Because he has done this, I will not do what I
promised during his lifetime. It will happen to his sons; I will destroy his
dynasty.”
Not that I understand what God
was thinking but the point is this – the fact that you entered the role or God
has left you in it, is not an indication that God is pleased with you; neither
is God pleased with you because He forgives and gives you other chances when
you repent before Him. I say these things so that we judge ourselves using correct
parameters. Ultimately, those acts by themselves do not describe how God
perceives you. God wants our lives to consistently give him glory. No wonder
the psalmist says that it was only after he got closer to God that he
understood the end of some prosperous people he had envied. As we understand
God we realize that He has more than enough, including mercies which are new
every morning, to give. He can choose to give whether or not one’s life pleases
Him.
Psalm 73: 16 – 17 “So I tried to
understand why the wicked prosper. But what a difficult task it is! Then I went
into your sanctuary, O God and I finally understood the destiny of the wicked.”
If you have been struggling with
life and wondering why your expectations appear to be disappointed when God
seems to be blessing the believer whose life remains a mess, you need to take
your eyes off them and focus on God. If you don’t, you will only get more
confused. You think you are righteous, good and just yet you are struggling, don’t
worry God is not unhappy with you and has not forgotten you; life happens to
both the just and unjust but God does come through and your end is settled. The
fact that you have been wonderful does not suggest that everything must go
according to your expectation. Please trust God as He takes you through this
journey of life.
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