The following was taken from Nancy Gutherie’s 416 p. landmark devotional masterpiece titled “The One Year Book of Hope.” 2005 Tyndale Momentum, p. 329. 26 copies available yesterday at ThriftBooks @$5.29 ea. for future Christmas, birthday or “just thinking of you” gifts? Enjoy.
For many, the word blessing sounds like religious jargon that doesn’t really mean much. I used to think of blessings as good gifts from God – at least the gifts I categorized as good. But I’m beginning to see that blessings are God’s way of showing us His favor, and sometimes His greatest favor comes to us in the form of hardship.
The Hebrew word for blessed is ashr, which means “to find the right path.” If you are surrounded by many confusing ways vying for your attention, but in time you do find the right way to go, giving you a profound then happiness. This Old Testament idea of happiness has to do with orientation, perspective, and the discovery of what is meaningful in the midst of shallow, superficial options.
And this is what we need, isn’t it – to find the right way to go, to gain a calming fruitful perspective for that which is not culturally chaotic but profoundly meaningful in our spirit, soul & body, heart, mind & will. We desire we be drawn to a pathway lit by the radiance of God’s face, a pathway that will lead us toward life, exclusively toward His Rightousness.
But seriously now, how much effort have you and I expended even since yesterday’s reading seriously considering Joni Eareckson Tada’s “bruised blessing” of His very presence whereby we consider turning our “valleys of weeping” into “pools of refreshing and empowering blessing?” And herein lies even a further dimension of “His bruised blessing” which too often is not even on our radar, because we tend to view blessing selfishly only in our personal domains, rather than for the multitudes He uniquely places in our spheres of influence searching for an authentic transformed & empowered community offering Seekers His Love, Forgiveness & Discipline. How dare we complain or say we’re bored if we really are His Ambassadors?
Consider our operational mandates from Romans 10:8-11 NIV 8.) The word is near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart,” that is, the message concerning faith that we proclaim: 9.) If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10.) For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved. 11.) As Scripture says, “Anyone who believes in him will never be put to shame.”
Heb. 12:1, 2. Let us run with patience the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.
DIGGING DEEPER: This week’s Passage for Meditation is Matthew 5: 3-12.
NEXT UP: Our Blessing Personally Implemented. Read Genesis 12:1-3