ARE YOU CHOSEN TO RECEIVE A SPECIAL BLESSING?
¿Es Ud. Elegido a Recibir Una Bendición Especial?
by
Mary Hunt Webb
Posted Friday, August 31, 2018
Remember giving at Christmas? [Photographer: Ognibene1. Photo courtesy of PhotoBucket.com.]
My older sister once asked me, "Do you remember when we were young and dropped our nickels and dimes into the Salvation Army kettles at Christmas?"
"Yes," I responded.
"Do you realize that the people we were helping were better off than we were?"
I hadn't understood that until she pointed it out, but she was right. No one wants to live in such reduced circumstances, but, as I reflected on her words, I realized that doing so had been essential preparation for the rest of our lives. Few situations in my adult life have had the power to depress or panic me because my early years had provided me with necessary coping skills.
At the time that I was sharpening those skills, I would have preferred not to be doing so. I wanted the life of luxury that I saw my peers experiencing. I wanted to live in a carpeted house that we owned (rather than rented) with air-conditioning and central heat, and with at least one car in a garage. Instead, God was blessing my sister and me with preparation for the future.
As I have learned along the way, God's blessings don't always appear in the forms we think they should. Sometimes He packages them in different ways and then waits to see if we are willing to accept them.
If you are going through a difficult period in your life right now, today's posting – and those in the months ahead – may help you to put your current situation into perspective. God's perspective, that is. Your current circumstance may not feel like a time of blessing, but do not lose heart. Instead, let me show you something.
Picture with me a field on a farm. This has been a productive field for the farmer that owns it. Although it has yielded crops of wheat and corn in recent years, the farmer knows that if he continues to plant such crops in it every year, they will deplete the nutrients in the soil. Additionally, erosion will begin to wear away the soil, insects and other pests will become accustomed to the location of their favorite food, and weeds will abound.
For those reasons, the farmer takes the field out of production and allows it to lie fallow or dormant for a year. During that period, the field appears empty and unproductive.
If that field could talk, it might ask the farmer, "Why are you treating me this way? Haven't I produced fine crops for you? Why are you neglecting me?"
That isn't the farmer's perspective. Far from neglecting that field, he is allowing it to rebuild strength for the future. In doing so, he is preparing the field for change.
The farmer is preparing his fields for future production. [Photographer: Chris Maclellan. Photo courtesy of Stockvault.net.]
When the year is over, the farmer surveys the field. Although it appears bare, there may be some stubble from the last crop and possibly some weeds. For planting purposes, the field is not empty enough. To prepare the soil to receive the new seed, the farmer first plows the field. Then he discs it to break up the clods. To the untrained eye, the field looks a mess, but only now is it ready to receive fresh seed.
This seed will be different to that of the last two crops. The farmer chooses a nourishing crop, such as soybeans or alfalfa that will build up the soil and replace nitrogen and other nutrients as it grows. Once this crop is harvested, the farmer prepares to return the field to the production of other crops.
Now consider the similarity between yourself and that field. A lot of productive activity may have taken place in your life. It may have seemed as though abundance would never stop coming your way. Perhaps you had a good job, an enviable position in your company or organization, a carpeted house with air-conditioning and central heating, more than one car, and possibly status and prestige. Your family members were doing well. Then, things suddenly changed. Many of the advantages you had enjoyed either dwindled or disappeared altogether. It doesn't feel as though you are being prepared for future activity, but you are. The season you are in will not last. Changes are already taking place that you can't see. You may not be aware of them, but I hope to show you in future installments that God is at work blessing you in ways that you may not have experienced or may not have understood before.
The Bible says as much in 1 Corinthians 2:9, "But as it is written: 'Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, Nor have entered into the heart of man The things which God has prepared for those who love Him.'" (NKJV)
The key phrase in that passage is, "The things which God has prepared for those who love him." That means that preparation is already under way because you have remained faithful to Him despite your circumstances. The situation in which you currently find yourself has come to pass, but it has not come to stay. You don't need the things you had before because you are in the preparation stage for the future. That means that you are being prepared for even greater things than you have already experienced.
Get ready! Better days are ahead!
BiBLE VERSE FOR THiS POSTiNG
1 Corinthians 2:9 — "But as it is written: 'Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, Nor have entered into the heart of man The things which God has prepared for those who love Him.'" (NKJV)
1 Corintios 2:9 — "Antes bien, como está escrito: Cosas que ojo no vio, ni oído oyó, … Ni han subido en corazón de hombre, Son las que Dios ha preparado para los que le aman" (Reina-Valera 1960)
Jeremiah 32:27 — "I am the Lord, the God of all mankind. Is anything too hard for me?" (NIV) [Photographer: J.L. Johnson. Photo courtesy of Stockvault.net.]
