Baptist City Blog

What God's Blessings Don't Mean

Deuteronomy 9:6

"Understand therefore, that the LORD thy God giveth thee not this good land to possess it for thy righteousness; for thou art a stiffnecked people."

Many of the sermons you hear are about getting the blessings of God upon your life. There is no doubt that getting God's blessings are a motivating factor in people living right. However, many times when someone starts to receive the blessings of God, they can have the wrong idea of why they received these blessings. In the verse above, God told the children of Israel that He wasn't blessing them because they deserved it. On the contrary, He blessed them because of His goodness and because of their forefathers. God didn't want these people to start thinking higher of themselves because He was blessed them. If we are not careful, we will get the wrong idea as to why God blesses us. Let me show you what God's blessings don't always mean.

First, they don't always mean that you are a great Christian. If you are not careful, you will start looking at the blessings that God is giving you and think that you are a great Christian. When this happens, pride sets in and you will set yourself up for God's judgment. Just because God blesses you does not make you a great Christian. God's blessings are given to us because we obeyed one of His principles for blessings. Follow my thinking. If I obey one principle and am blessed because of that action, yet I disobey three other principles, just because God blessed me for obeying the one principle does not make me a great Christian. God blesses people when they follow His principles. Yet, those blessings don't make you a great Christian.

Furthermore, just because God blesses a church doesn't make it a great church. When a church follows a few commands from the Scriptures, God's blessings are going to follow. However, that same church could be disobeying other commands. Do the blessings of God for the few commands that are being obeyed make this church a great church? NO! It only means that they followed some principle that resulted in God's blessings. If I press the accelerator on a car, I will be blessed with speed. However, pressing an accelerator does not make me a great driver. Likewise, receiving God's blessings does not always make me a great Christian.

Second, God's blessings don't mean that you deserve them. God made this principle very clear in the verse above. Sometimes God chooses to bless us because He is merciful and gracious. In fact, let's just be honest with each other, nobody deserves the blessings of God. Just because God blessed you does not mean that you deserved those blessings.

Third, God's blessings don't always mean that you received them because of your actions. Often in the Scriptures God blessed someone because of someone else. You could be receiving the blessings of God because you are under the umbrella of someone else. For instance, there are many people receiving God's blessings because of their pastor, spouse or parents. Don't always think that God's blessings come to you because of you. Many times God blesses us because of others.

Finally, God's blessings come upon us because of the goodness of God. Don't ever forget this! God's goodness is what causes Him to bless us. Nobody deserves the blessings of God, but God chooses to bless us out of His desire to make us happy. Be careful about thinking higher of yourself because of God's blessings than you should. Keeping God's blessings on your life in proper perspective will help you to keep yourself in a proper perspective as well.