Daddy watching his baby girl and his heart broke. The frustration etched on her face represented the turmoil in her heart and he needed to speak the right thing so that she would be turned back to the truth of God’s word and the real depth of His love for her.

Dear Father,

Help me speak Your word to Your daughter in a way that she can understand. She is precious to You and You are the only one who can reach into the space she is in and help her understand what You are doing in, with and eventually through her. In Your Name, Amen

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Dad began to speak

Let me put it this way, God loves you and HE sends your blessings your way.

My blessings?

Yes…your blessings. However, there is a process and until you have successfully walked the process, learnt the lesson and filled out His plan He can’t give you all the blessings He has in store.

Are you saying I have to earn the blessing?

No, dear. I’m saying that there is a process and lesson in everything.

A process and a lesson…mmmhhhh…do you mean something like school or coursework?

Yes. Something like that. Each of us can take the same course but the end result will be different. It is not about equal effort

equal result. It is about individual gifts, commitments and outcomes. My effort could seem to be the same equal to yours but my results could be lower or higher simply as a function of who I am. As long as I have done all I need to do, listened and applied myself to achieve my own result I have indeed done my best.

Dad paused to allow baby girl to think then continued….

It is the same with God. We all go through the same process at the point of salvation. We confess our sin and accept Him as Saviour. However, we all apply ourselves differently in our relationship with Him and that determines how deep we get with Him not what we get out of Him.

What do you mean by apply ourselves? Is it about the things I do, how I live out the tenets of my faith? How many hours I spend in prayer, fasting and bible study? How do I divide my time between Christian activities and work?

Not at all! It is about hearing God, receiving and following His instruction to the letter not the things you do or don’t do.

Don’t we always do that?

Do what?

Follow His instruction to the letter…

I don’t know…Do we really?

Of course we do. How else would we work and provide for our families? Isn’t HE the one who gives us the power to create wealth and live well?

He is, yet there is more. The big question here is…do we trust Him fully to provide for us even when it is unclear how He will provide or when we lose everything we thought we had in the process of waiting for His answer and provision?

Of course! We pray, work hard and then wait for Him to supply.

If that is true, why are you so stressed about that you have or don’t have against what others have? Why are you measuring your life against the plumb line of the lives of others?

It’s simple, I am a child of God and my supply is guaranteed and therefore my success is guaranteed.

Really?

Doesn’t the Bible say that as children of God we are blessed, appointed, that He will supply our needs according to His riches in glory?

It does.

So, why wouldn’t I receive every blessing?

There’s no reason you won’t receive every blessing. However, can I define blessing for you?

Sure.

To be blessed is to receive everything you need for success including failure and chastisement.

What?

So many questions were running through her mind. This conversation wasn’t making sense. It felt like the rug had been pulled out from under her feet or the blanket had been pulled back on a cold July night or cold water had been poured on her while asleep.

• Was this true? Could it be? What were the odds that this would be real?
• How could blessing include chastisement and failure?
• Weren’t blessings good things? How could the hard things be blessings too?
• Would God really let her fail at something to get her attention or teach her something?
• Would she survive the process?

As she sat there lost in thought about the new definition of blessing she had just heard made Jean forget that her

conversation with daddy had stopped.  There was so much to process.

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The journey continues…