Blessings

I was listening to a sermon this afternoon about the times when we find God to be uncooperative with the plans/hopes we have for our life. It was a wonderfully sobering reminder that our circumstances are not the yardstick by which we should gauge His care for us.

He sacrificed His only Son to save us from an eternity of suffering---any other blessing after that is gravy. And, frankly, my comfort is not the primary goal of God. The Enemy can so easily lead us to a place where we question everything we have seen, known, felt and believed about God's Sovereign, grace-filled goodness as a result of being uncomfortable for a season.

As we approach this week of giving thanks, I am challenged to rejoice in and be grateful for the non-traditional things...the hard times, the seasons of little, the circumstances where God has told me No...or seemed to tell me nothing at all. It is a lot harder to do isn't it?





As the sermon concluded, a soloist performed the song Blessings by Laura Story. With a lump in my throat I tried to really take in the lyrics:

We pray for blessings
We pray for peace
Comfort for family, protection while we sleep
We pray for healing, for prosperity
We pray for Your mighty hand to ease our suffering
All the while, You hear each spoken need
Yet love us way too much to give us lesser things

'Cause what if Your blessings come through raindrops
What if Your healing comes through tears
What if a thousand sleepless nights
Are what it takes to know You’re near
What if trials of this life are Your mercies in disguise

We pray for wisdom
Your voice to hear
And we cry in anger when we cannot feel You near
We doubt Your goodness, we doubt Your love
As if every promise from Your Word is not enough
All the while, You hear each desperate plea
And long that we'd have faith to believe

'Cause what if Your blessings come through raindrops
What if Your healing comes through tears
What if a thousand sleepless nights
Are what it takes to know You’re near
And what if trials of this life are Your mercies in disguise

When friends betray us
When darkness seems to win
We know that pain reminds this heart
That this is not, this is not our home
It's not our home

'Cause what if Your blessings come through raindrops
What if Your healing comes through tears
And what if a thousand sleepless nights
Are what it takes to know You’re near
What if my greatest disappointments
Or the aching of this life
Is the revealing of a greater thirst this world can’t satisfy
And what if trials of this life
The rain, the storms, the hardest nights
Are Your mercies in disguise

Courtesy of lyricshall.com

My life (like many, I suppose) is a bittersweet mixture of extreme gratefulness and deep sadness. I am so very blessed. And yet, my heart physically aches about several situations involving people I love. It defies logic some days that I can simultaneously be so heartsick and so hopeful. It is ONLY possible because I really believe God is who He says He is--even when I don't understand the whys and hows.

"My heart will choose to say, Lord, blessed be Your name." Matt Redman