Bible Study

God of Extreme Blessing

Friends, today I want you to remember, that in Christ, we serve a God of extreme blessings. There are times we may forget that. Like now, when the world seems a little upside down and chaotic. But more than ever, we need to remember who our God is. He is extravagant! He loves to give good gifts to His children. Just like so many people throughout scripture, we can see the circumstances right in front of us and forget who God is, but also like them, we can look back and focus on the never changing, awesome God we serve and be reminded that He is faithful and extremely loving.

I could literally type for days and not cover all the ways scripture shows God has blessed His people extravagantly. Rather than that, I’ll just share a few of my favorites. The Israelites in the desert is one I come back to often if I need to be reminded of how God blesses His people. (The entire book of Exodus tells this story.) As they are leaving Egypt, the Egyptians give them tons of wealth to take with them. They headed into the desert not as slaves but as a wealthy, free people. God brings them out of captivity, then provides protection from their enemies. Egypt cannot follow them into the desert because of God’s protection. While in the desert, God gives them food and water for 40 years! Their clothes and shoes never wore out. God provided His leadership both in Moses and also in the cloud/pillar of fire. They knew they were not left alone because they could see God’s provision each day. They still grumbled. They didn’t love all the “provisions” God gave them. But here’s where I think that extreme blessing came in; God continued to provide – even when the grumbled. He gave it to them while they complained. He showed love to them even when they were ungrateful! That is an extreme God of blessing. I am reminded of the times I grumble and complain about God’s provision all the while forgetting, He has blessed me with what I need and He continues to do so.

Joshua 2 tells the beginning of Rahab’s story. Rahab was a prostitute in Jericho. When the men of Israel came to spy out the land, Rahab hid the spies and told them that the people of Jericho were afraid of Israel because they had heard of what God had done for them. After the fall of Jericho, Rahab was taken in to be one of the Israelites. She marries a leader in the community and ends up being in the lineage of Jesus. Who but a God of extreme blessing, would take a prostitute and place them in the line of the greatest King that has ever lived? Her life was made new. Rather than shame, she was given honor. I am reminded how God takes my biggest, shame filled sins and turns them into something beautiful. Not because I have earned it but because He loves to bless extravagantly.

The last one I will share for now, is Jesus feeding the multitude. This can be found in all four gospels. (Matt 14:13-21, Mk 6:32-44, Lk 9:10-17, Jn 6:1-13) Jesus is traveling around sharing the gospel message. Because of all the miracles He does, people follow Him everywhere. At one point Jesus is surrounded by thousands of people in a remote place. And there is no food for these people to eat. Jesus asks His disciples how they think they might feed these people. One says, it would take too much money to feed them. Another says, we only have one lunch of fish and bread. Jesus has all the people sit down and He thanks God for providing the food and has the disciples begin to pass it around. He then instructs them to pick up the left overs. Twelve baskets of left overs!! From one little boys lunch, thousands ate and then their were left overs. But what I think is the extreme blessing in this story? The people wanted to follow Jesus everywhere so that they could be fed for free. In fact, after Jesus leaves them for the night they try to predict where He is going so they can be there in the morning. In John 6:35-40 Jesus tells His disciples that He doesn’t just want them to be fed and taken care of for one day, but rather He is the Bread of Life that can feed them for eternity. That’s extreme! He wasn’t frustrated with the people only wanting what He gave them physically, He had compassion on them. But He wanted them to understand that His desire was to sustain them forever. Talk about #blessed!

We don’t get to choose how God will bless us. We don’t get to say how long difficulties may last. But in those difficulties, we can choose to recognize that God blesses us in abundance. God has blessed me each and every day with breath, and clothes. Food and water. A home to rest in. In fact, pages and pages of ways He has blessed me. Not all these have been my favorites and I always seem to want more, but each moment I can see that He has showered me with extreme blessing. When times are good, we can see those blessing easily. When times are trying, it can be more difficult. When we can’t produce the needed strength or resource to manage a situation it’s an opportunity to grow our faith. For many of us, this pandemic reveals a deep need we have – one we can’t fix. Let God, the God of extreme blessing, bless you. However He would like, not with your desires but with His perfect plans. As we press in to be in God’s presence more, we can see that His plan is so much better than we would have imagined.