Bless, bless
When my children were young, life was a bit chaotic at times. Inevitably a permission slip or an AWANA vest would go missing and there would be a mad scramble to find the lost item. To this day, my family would attest to the fact that I would frequently misplace my half-consumed cup of coffee somewhere in the house and then lament that I couldn’t find it! More often than not, my daughter would disappear and then reappear a minute or two later with the lost item and hand it to me! I would make a big show of gratitude by placing both of my hands on her head and enthusiastically saying, “Bless you, my child. Bless you!” Her bright blue eyes would twinkle and her little face would light up with a big smile because she knew she had just been a big helper for Mommy!
It is easy to bless those you know, and those who are loving and helpful toward you, but what about people who act aggressively toward you? Romans 12:14 says, “Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse.” While our natural inclination might be to lash out, scripture instructs us to bless that person. It is important to note that this command is given twice!
To bless someone is to call earnestly for them to be blessed by the Lord. To curse someone is to call earnestly for evil upon someone. While we may not encounter life-threatening persecution in America, the potential exists for things such as name-calling, doxing, isolation, and general harassment, which are all forms of persecution. As ambassadors for Christ, our business needs to be about bringing light, truth, peace, love, and blessing into every situation we encounter, especially the ones fraught with negativity and darkness.
He is our Shepherd, and we are His sheep. To curse someone is simply to call more darkness upon an already dark situation, which will do nothing but escalate things in the wrong direction. Metaphorically speaking, it would be like a sheep encountering a snarling, aggressive pack of wolves, and calling upon another wolf for help. Our help comes from the Lord, our Good Shepherd. Scripture says the following:
“Never take your own revenge, beloved, but leave room for the wrath of God, for it is written: “Vengeance is Mine, I will repay,” says the Lord.” (Romans 12:19)
“The Lord will protect you from all evil; He will keep your soul.” (Psalm 121:7)
“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort.” (2 Corinthians 1:3)
Our Shepherd protects and brings peace to His flock. If vengeance is needed, it is His to give, not ours. If someone persecutes or curses us, our response should be to call for a double blessing upon them, thus infusing the situation with God’s light and love.
“To sum up, all of you be harmonious, sympathetic, loving, compassionate, and humble; not returning evil for evil or insult for insult, but giving a blessing instead; for you were called for the very purpose that you would inherit a blessing.” (1 Peter 3:8-9)
Bless, bless…
Fullness of Joy
Have you ever noticed that typically wherever there are balloons, there is joy?
There’s just something about the bright colors and seeing an arch or bouquet of them that brings a smile!
Our hearts are kind of like balloons. Before the indwelling of Christ, scripture says our hearts are deceitful and desperately sick (Jeremiah 17:9) and that we are dead in our trespasses and sins (Ephesians 2:1)
When we accept Christ, the indwelling of the Holy Spirit begins to breathe new life into our shriveled hearts.
As we begin to walk with Him, old fleshly habits and ways of thinking begin to fall away and we begin to grow and expand in the grace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ (2 Peter 3:18).
In his letter to the Ephesians, Paul prays “that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in the inner man, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; and that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fulness of God.” (Ephesians 3:16-19, emphasis mine)
The Greek word for “filled” in this verse is “plēroō” which means “to be pervaded (richly furnished) with the power and gifts of the Holy Spirit, rooted as it were in Christ by virtue of the intimate relationship entered into with Him.” The Greek word for fulness is “plērōma” which means “to be wholly filled and flooded by God.” John 1:16 says, “For of his fulness we have all received, and grace upon grace.” Like the continual waves of the ocean that crash upon the shoreline, His grace continues to pour into our hearts, and we experience the joy of His continual presence and the blessing of all His attributes that He graciously bestows upon us. The more we get to know Him, the more we begin to understand who He is and His great love for us. In response, our love for Him and desire to serve Him continues to deepen and grow.
We live in a fallen world though, and experience has taught us that balloons will pop if overinflated. Herein lies the mystery of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit within the heart of a man or woman. “Can the finite contain the Infinite? … The finite can contain the Infinite, if you are talking about two hearts that love, one of them God’s and one of them mine…as long as we retain clearly in our minds the consciousness of the personal distinction between God and His child, so as that the child can turn round and say, ‘I love Thee’ and God can look down and say, ‘I bless thee’; then all identification and mutual indwelling and impartation from Him of Himself are possible, and are held forth as the aim and end of Christian life.” (MacLaren, https://www.blueletterbible.org/comm/maclaren_alexander/expositions-of-holy-scripture/ephesians/the-climax-of-all-prayer.cfm?a=1100019)
Note the progression of thought and the expansive nature of His love in the following verses:
“He who does not love does not know God, for God is love.” (1 John 4:8)
“We love, because He first loved us.” (1 John 4:19)
“In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.” (1 John 4:10)
“For in Him all the fullness of Deity dwells in bodily form.” (Colossians 2:9)
“And we have come to know and have believed the love which God has for us. God is love, and the one who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.” (1 John 4:16)
“Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us.” (Ephesians 3:19)
“And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 4:7)
“That in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.” (Ephesians 2:7)
“Then I will go to the altar of God, to God my exceeding joy; and on the harp I will praise You, O God, my God.” (Psalm 43:4)
To know and experience the fullness of His love by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit is indeed cause for our hearts to swell with fullness of joy!
Sufficiency
I have several friends who struggle with chronic fatigue and autoimmune conditions. Their energy levels are very unpredictable from day to day. To help me try to understand what it is like, one friend describes it as only having a certain number of “spoons’ worth of energy’ to get through each day. Some days she might have three spoons, but other days she may wake up with no spoons. Getting basic things like laundry and meal planning done when operating in a “spoon deficit” is a real challenge.
Physical weakness is not the only thing that can be an obstacle to accomplishing our work. Emotional distress such as grief, whether it is due to a recent loss or over things that happened in our past, can sap our energy levels and ability to cope. The trials we often encounter in life can be a combination of physical and emotional pain. Pride, which deceives us into thinking we can handle whatever comes our way, is a subtle but powerful energy zapper. The American culture glorifies self-sufficiency and a “pull yourself up by the bootstraps” mentality. Inevitably though, when we burn the candle at both ends, our strength begins to wane. The world’s solution is to drink more caffeine, eat more protein, or take more supplements. These provide a temporary boost to help us keep going, but they do not sustain us.
The apostle Paul says in 2 Corinthians 12:9a, “And He has said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness.” Paul was not a stranger to trials. This verse comes directly after his request to the Lord to have a “thorn” removed. Whatever it was, it was clearly a painful and debilitating ailment, condition, or set of circumstances that Paul felt was impeding his ability to work, and scripture says he implored the Lord three times for its removal. His request is both relatable and understandable. No one enjoys being painfully hampered in their ability to get their work done. The Lord could have chosen to remove the “thorn,” thus easing the burden. Instead, He chose to strengthen Paul’s ability to bear it and to remind Paul that His grace is sufficient, and His power is perfected in weakness.
In David Guzik’s commentary he says, “God deliberately engineered debilitating circumstances into Paul’s life so he would be in constant, total dependence on God’s grace and God’s strength.” https://www.blueletterbible.org/comm/guzik_david/study-guide/2-corinthians/2-corinthians-12.cfm?a=1090009
When we are brought low and emptied of our pride and resources, it forces us to recognize and acknowledge our insufficiency so that He can step in with an exceeding, abundant supply of sustaining grace. Redpath said of this verse, “God works through the man who has been wiped clean and turned inside out, his life emptied before the Lord until he is hopelessly weak, that no flesh might glory in His presence.” https://www.blueletterbible.org/comm/guzik_david/study-guide/2-corinthians/2-corinthians-12.cfm?a=1090009
The feeding of the five thousand in all four gospel accounts is a beautiful example of His sufficient grace. The disciples assessed the situation and immediately determined that it would be impossible to feed the large crowd with only five loaves and two fish. Their resources were limited and woefully insufficient for the task at hand. When they expressed this to the Lord, He simply instructed them to give what they did have, as weak and insufficient as it was, to Him. He gave thanks, blessed it, broke it and had the disciples distribute it. When everyone was fed to the full, the leftovers totaled twelve basketfuls. They ended up with much more than they started with.
Alexander MacLaren summarized it beautifully in the following statement:
“Two hundred pennyworth of bread is not sufficient that every one may take a little,’ says Sense. Omnipotence says, ‘Bring the few small loaves and fishes unto Me’; and Faith dispensed them amongst the crowd; and Experience ‘gathered up of the fragments that remained’ more than there had been when the multiplication began. So the grace utilized increases; the gift grows as it is employed. ‘Unto him that hath shall be given.’ And the ‘sufficiency’ is not a bare adequacy, just covering the extent of the need, with no overlapping margin, but is large beyond expectation, desire, or necessity; so leading onwards to high hopes and a wider opening of the open mouths of our need that the blessing may pour in.” https://www.blueletterbible.org/comm/maclaren_alexander/expositions-of-holy-scripture/2corinthians/strength-in-weakness.cfm?a=1090009
If you are weary and find yourself completely emptied of energy and resources, remember that Jesus Himself endured thorns. Remember His prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane. He knew what was coming and asked three times if there was any other way, to let the cup pass from Him. In order for eternal salvation to be possible, the cup did not and could not pass. God’s sustaining grace strengthened Him, enabling Him to endure the cross and rise three days later, triumphant over death.
He understands human weakness. He walked among us and experienced human frailty in all its forms.
“Do you not know? Have you not heard? The Everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth does not become weary or tired. His understanding is inscrutable. He gives strength to the weary, and to him who lacks might He increases power.” (Isaiah 40:28-29)
“Whoever speaks, let him speak, as it were, the utterances of God; whoever serves, let him do so as by the strength which God supplies; so that in all things God may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom belongs the glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.” (1 Peter 4:11)
His power is perfected in weakness.
His grace is sufficient.
To God be the glory.