Words from the WellRandom Thoughts on Christ, the Church and Technology

God has blessed me all of my life. I’m not saying that life has been easy for me, far from it, but the fact remains that God has always seen fit to bless me, sometimes at very unusual times, sometimes at times when I had no idea he was blessing me until a long time later and I’m positive that He has blessed me times that I don’t know about now.

I remember a lesson that I learned about 10 years ago. I was serving on a church staff and one day my wife and I walked into a little shop that was owned by some church members. I was looking at an expensive pair of Minnetonka shoes. For those who don’t know what those are they are moccasins, very comfortable (these were doeskin) and pricey for a lowly church staff member. Anyway, I was coveting these shoes, never planning to purchase them, just dreaming. The owner of the shop walked over and offered to help me find my size. I politely refused, I didn’t want to get her hopes for a sale up. She insisted that I try a pair on so I did. When I took them off, she put them back in the box and said to me, “Just say Thank You, nothing else.” I said “Thank you,” and walked out of the store with the shoes.

Here’s the lesson. God wants to bless us. His Word says so (John 10:10-19). If you are like me, being given things that you do not deserve is very difficult. Trust me, I know just how difficult this can be. What God is teaching me right now is that He gets to choose when He blesses, not me, and He gets to choose how or Who He uses to bless me. What He wants from me is my praise, worship, adoration, obedience and dependence. I could never, ever earn what God has given me and I certainly don’t deserve it. But to turn down God’s blessing does two things, 1) it weakens my relationship with God and 2)it robs someone else of their joy of being used by God.

God is saying to, “Get over yourself! I know you don’t deserve this, and you know you don’t deserve this, but I’m gonna do it anyway. Just say thank you!”

Is there someone you need to say thank you to?