God’s Blessings

   Why do we do the good we do?  Is it because we believe we can earn the blessings of God by our actions?  Rather, are we doing good things out of thanksgiving for the blessings God has given us?  Do we share those blessings with others because of our love for them and for God?

   If we believe we can earn or become worthy of God’s blessings by our actions we are mistaken.  God loves everyone and blesses each of us from His love.  Nothing we do can add to or detract from that love.  We can only make it grow by sharing it with others, perhaps enabling them to understand that God loves them as well.

   We can’t earn His blessings, but still we must respond to His blessings.  That is the true purpose of the good we do; giving thanks to God by sharing the blessings he has given us.  Jesus told us to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, give drink to the thirsty and visit the sick and imprisoned.  If we do these things we recognize that we have been blessed and therefore have the obligation to pass those blessings along to others.  He also told us that failure to do these things can result in being sent away from Him at the final judgement.  While we can’t earn God’s love and blessings we can reject them and destroy our relationship with Him.

   I believe that our spiritual life suffers tremendously if we have the wrong attitude about the blessings of God.  By trying to earn them through our actions we are putting a price on the love and favor of God; a price that none of us can possible pay.  We not only cheapen His blessings we look upon God as an ATM machine.  We deposit the good we do into the bank of God and then, when we enter our pin, He distributes blessings as our due.  That may be the way the world operates but it isn’t how God does things.

   By realizing that we are not purchasing God’s blessing in our actions but thanking Him for them we are doing the will of God for selfless reasons rather than for our own benefit.  In this way we honor God and His blessings, giving them away in His name to those in need.

   “Happy the people to whom such blessing fall!  Happy the people whose God is the Lord!” (Ps 144: 15)