It was good for me to be afflicted so that I could learn your statutes. Instruction from your lips is better for me than thousands of gold and silver pieces. —Psalm 119:71–72
God’s idea of blessing versus our idea isn’t always the same. We think blessing means having what we want, when we want it, and having all our desires satisfied without pain, problems, and pressures. But God always has the long-term view in mind. He brings situations and circumstances into our lives that may not seem like blessings, yet they ultimately result in our good.
True blessing includes having the Holy Spirit at work in our lives, being adopted into the family of God, having been chosen from eternity past to belong to Him. It means experiencing real contentment because He has promised us everything we need for our present peace and happiness.
True blessing isn’t the absence of hard things but Christ’s presence in hard places—the grace to dwell with difficulty and still know that He’s bestowing upon us the greatest of all blessings: the gift of Himself.
For that is all we really need.
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The Quiet Place: Daily Devotional Readings ©2012 Nancy Leigh DeMoss
Scripture taken from The CSB
Make it Personal
Do you sometimes define God’s blessing in temporal rather than eternal terms? Make a list of the blessings you have in Christ.