I love to be able to count on the blessings of God. I love to think that He will bless me as it says in Deuteronomy 28, “Your towns and your fields will be blessed. Your children and your crops will be blessed. The offspring of your herds and flocks will be blessed. Your fruit baskets and breadboards will be blessed. Wherever you go and whatever you do, you will be blessed.” Aren’t these wonderful promises to be able to claim as a child of God?
“My cup overflows with blessings.” That sounds really great! Let’s remember however, what the beginning of this verse is saying—that He is preparing a feast for us in the presence of our enemies. David, as he writes these words is not living in what we would naturally think of as the blessings of God. After all, walking through the darkest valley (verse 4) doesn’t sound very cushy.
So I turned to Matthew 5, the famous Sermon on the Mount, where Jesus is talking about God’s blessings. “God blesses those who are poor and realize their need for him, for the Kingdom of Heaven is theirs. God blesses those who mourn, for they will be comforted. God blesses those who are humble, for they will inherit the whole earth,” (verses 3-5). And He continues in this same vein. These sound more like what David is saying about a feast in the midst of our enemies and not being afraid while walking through a deep, dark valley. Even though we will walk through some very difficult times, God promises to overflow our cup with blessings.
As I continue through Jesus’ teachings I see He warns that there will be times of persecution (Luke 21:12-19), that we will be dragged into courts and prisons, standing trial because we follow Him. Then He promises the blessing of Him giving us the right words and such amazing wisdom that our opponents won’t be able to reply or refute us. He says we will be betrayed by those closest to us, some of us will even be killed, but not a hair of our head will perish! Does this sound like an oxymoron to you? We will be killed, but not a hair of our head will perish? He follows by saying that by standing firm we will win our souls.
Yes, I believe, have seen, and have experienced the blessings of God as we would like to have them, but I have also experienced the blessings of God when my world is upside down. The Christian life is not all rosy, there is and will be persecution, but our cup will overflow with blessings in this life and the life to come when we live a life of obedience to Him. Back to the first paragraph where I listed the towns, fields, children, crops, etc that will be blessed—do you know how we receive these blessings? The verse preceding this list of blessings says, “ You will experience all these blessings if you obey the Lord your God, (Deut. 28:2).
Want a cup overflowing with blessings? Learn to live a life of humble obedience. That is the life the Lord blesses.
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