i AM BLESSED BECAUSE...

i've been counting my blessings a lot lately.

living in a fallen world where everything around us tempts us to be negative, selfish and ungrateful through the enemy- how easy it is to forget how much we all truly have? very easy. first off- we are immensely blessed if we have a relationship with God and have his love. That really truly is all we need. All other things of this world will fade, but God never will. Two major foundations that the Bible are based on are love and forgiveness. Sometimes, in the middle of a trial or a difficult season in our life, it is easy to become attacked and surrounded with thoughts of discouragement, worthlessness, feelings of walking uphill and never being able to conquer the hill we are climbing. This is only human nature, we were created like this. But this all changes when we accept the Lord into our life and invite His spirit to live in us.

In Job 33:4 it says "The spirit of God made me, the breath of the Almighty gives me life." In Job, of all places.The story of Job essentially is one where God lets the devil strip Job of everything. Everything. His family, his job, his finances, you name it. Satan proposes to God that Job only praises and stays faithful to God because of Gods protection from suffering and heartbreak. Only God has control over what He lets the enemy do, so God allows the enemy to take everything from Job. Of course, several questions arise from Job- as humans who cannot see God to face to face often ask the same question: "Why MUST the righteous suffer?" Not only in Job, but in a lot of the Word do we learn why God allows these things to happen. It is beyond human ability to understand the "whys" of all of the suffering in the world. Too often, we blame our suffering and sin on our own lifestyles, when it fact, God is allowing it to be so. After all, He did create us with free will, and He knows every move we make and what will consist of our days before they are. Psalm 139: 1-14 goes into this detail about how He knows when we rise in the mornings and is familiar with ALl of our ways. What really gets me is this scripture: Psalm 139:6 says, "such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too lofty I can not attain it."

Still, though, the enemys only role in life is to destroy us and our thoughts, to break us away fromn being faithful to the Lord, which is exactly which God ALLOWS him to do in Job. Although Job had many questions, never did he once curse God. He did, however, curse the day He was born. (Sound familiar? Even in my weakest of times, I have wondered if it really is all worth it. Of course with one worship song and staying in my word...YES...it is. It is ALL worth it and it is ALL happening for a reason.) Sometimes, at least in my life, I have felt I have lost it all. Just like Job. My family, my finances, my HEALTH, my sanity, everything. God allows Satan to take this all away from Job, promising the devil that Job will indeed be faithful. All of Jobs friends insist that God is "punishing" Job for his sinful life. But Job insists he hasn't really lived a sinful life. He was a righteous man who truly loved God. Then a man named Elihu comes before Job and tells him he needs to HUMBLE himself before God and truly submit to Gods use of trials to purify His life. We sin every day, every single day we fail God. We are never worthy of His love or mercy, or His grace. Sometimes, though, in just plain english, God lets things happen to PUT us in check. To show us where we have been- and or where we need to be. We need it. We need to be humbled, we need to be taught to put aside our pride, and sometimes- maybe He just does it to make sure we are actually allowing God to be in control and handle absolutely everything in our life. These are some powerful words, really think about them.

We cannot always blame suffering and sin on our lifestyles. Suffering may sometimes be allowed in our lives to purify, test, teach or strengthen the soul. God remains enough, deserves and requests our love and praise in all circumstances of life.

AMEN!!!!! Let this sink in. We don't walk by circumstances! We don't walk by faith! We can't see God, not until we get to Heaven. We walk by faith. 2 Corinthians 5:7 "For we walk by faith, not by sight." We walk just by trusting in Him and STRONG faith. We don't get through the difficult trials and huge life storms by having a little bit of faith. We SUSTAIN AND PREVAIL BY HAVING STRONG FAITH. BY HAVING STRONG FAITH. BY PUTTING ALL OF OUR HOPE TRUST AND LOVE IN GOD, and God alone. Not our earthly circumstances. Not our consequences when we sin.

On our own, we cannot make it through trials in our lives. In fact, we really can't make it through the day without God. All of these trials in our lives show us that not only can we not understand why God puts us through certain things, but that His love and our FAITHFULNESS is indeed enough. Often times, we will find ourselves looking to God and wondering why- why things aren't going our way? Why we feel like we are being punished when we are faithful? The Book of Job teaches us this. It teaches us that we, in the midst of the storms, we must lay ourselves down at the feet of God, we must go straight to God- and be accepting to learn extremely valuable and priceless lessons about His sovereignty of God, and our need as weak human beings to TOTALLY trust in the Lord.


No, it isn't easy. But God is so faithful. If He takes something out of our life, it is for a reason. He never takes away without giving back, and almost always more than what we had before. If He delays our blessing, it is because we are not letting go of something and letting Him fully work inside of us. Truly. Letting Jesus live inside of us. And sometimes- when we feel we are walking righteously and are being as faithful as we are in a fallen world- God takes it all away. Why? So that we strengthen our relationship with Him, even more than the day before. So that we NEVER forget to keep looking at God and praising Him- regardless. Gods deepest desire is for us to be in an intimate relationship with Him. As it is in earthly relationships, we are ever growing, no? We go through things that strengthen us, that make us value those relationships even more than the day before. Well, if we are doing that with earthly relationships, WE CAN ABSOLUTELY DO IT WITH OUR CREATOR! WITH THE KING OF THE UNIVERSE WHO IS SOLELY LOVE. We as humans must not only trust God when we do not understand, but indeed BECAUSE we do not understand! God is perfect. He asks us to trust Him wholely. That he works everything for good for those who love Him and trust Him. Romans 8:28. Although trusting God sometimes seems impossible, God is greater than us. His mind and thoughts are greater, says Isaiah 55:8-9.


The book of Job is such an inspiration to me, as it should be to anybody who has endured trials. Uh, newsflash: that should be EVERYBODY. God is ever lasting and and is ever faithful to us, why can't we be the same to Him? In Psalm 18:30 it says "As for God, His way is perfect." On that alone- His thoughts ways and plans are perfect. Whatever He is doing, whatever He allows to happen, is best. The best part? After Job meditates on all of this...after He realizes He truly needs to trust God and lay it all down, God restores Job. His health, happiness and prosperity are given back to Him, beyond greater measure than is before.


If we have any responsibility in our intimate relationship with Jesus, in our intimate faith, in our job as Christians and daughters and sons of the King, it is this. To trust the Lord, whether we understand it or not.


I am extremely blessed, and if God took it all away tomorrow- everything- I can truly tell you I would still praise Him. I am not blessed because of earthly things, I am blessed because I have a God who loves me regardless. Who covers me in His love, always. Who forgives and forgets and who delights in me. I believe that everything He does is for a reason and He knows best.


I am beyond blessed and will be forever solely because of Gods love.


Until next time!


XXOXOX

Caitlin