Saturday, December 15, 2012

Enjoying the Abundance of Blessing

“God doesn’t bless us just to make us happy; He blesses us to make us a blessing.”
— Warren Wiersbe
Having met a special mentor recently, reflecting over both our respective years, I was given a precious piece of advice: enjoy the blessing. It was one of those pieces of advice that causes you to reflect quite deeply; it’s a piece of advice that has many nuances of significant meaning. Advice like this can define an entire season.
As I write this I’m caused to land on one facet of this advice. And it’s the quote above that gives blessing its true basis. Perhaps the quote below helps explain:
We are filled by the Spirit for the overflow.”
— Peter Christofides
A blessing isn’t maximised unless we use the blessing of God over our lives to make us a blessing, to others. God blesses us through the infilling of the Holy Spirit such that we would be quick to overflow his blessing onto others. This is nothing about flattery, but everything about seeking God regarding the most appropriate ways to speak God’s love into others’ lives, in the right way at the right time.
When Enjoyment Is Made More Abundant
The beautiful thing about blessing is that it is unlimited in scope for the enjoyment.
Because God multiplies every good thing, and this blessing is a very good thing, more joy and more enjoyment is made possible in growing the blessing by paying it forward. Love was always meant to multiply. And blessing is love.
The moment we refuse to enjoy the blessing all to ourselves, and look quickly to others so as to bless them, the blessing is grown.
This is our opportunity of love.
Life without love is meaningless, yet life with love is an abundance of purpose; the mission of God.
The Gospel could be encompassed in this principle: Love gives itself away; Love insists on the rights of others over itself; the greatest love is that of a person giving up their lives (and their blessing) for another. Christ is the greatest example of the blessedness in giving away the blessing. We are all beneficiaries!
Enjoying the blessing, therefore, has to be about further investments of love toward even more blessing—targeted towards others. Love grows in such seedbed of blessing. And nothing will diminish it where we are other-focused.
We are all blessed in many ways, and our role in gratitude of these blessings is to overflow them on to others, such that they may be inspired to pay it forward.
© 2012 S. J. Wickham.

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