God Has Great Blessings in Store for Us

"The trouble with opportunity," says an old quote, "is that it always comes disguised as hard work." The Christian equivalent of that principle is: The trouble with many of God's blessings is that He rarely bestows them in the absence of any action on our part. Not, of course, that even the laziest among us don't enjoy such blessings as air and water (cf. Mt. 5:44-45), nor that the most diligent of us can do anything to earn God's favor; nor, for that matter, that those who seem to be experiencing few blessings are always "lazy" by the normal definition of the word. Workaholics who put in seventy-hour weeks three times a month are as likely as anybody to be whining that their lives are miserable and God isn't doing a thing about it.

Usually what we want Him to do about it is to make things perfect according to our own definitions, to get rid of all frustration and fill our lives with prosperity and happiness--preferably with minimal effort on our part. And we let this shallow dream of "the good life" so fill our vision that we blind ourselves to the far greater vision God wants to give us: a lifelong experience of the incredible excitement, joy, and security that comes only with total submission to our Lord's will. Therein lies the true action we have to take to realize God's greatest blessings: an active submission that not only does whatever He asks of us, instantly without argument or question, but that fills the time between obvious "marching orders" with prayer and Bible study and an ongoing determination to know Him better at all costs.

No, doing this doesn't mean we'll always get the blessings we want. It does mean we'll get the real blessings--the ones God most wants to give us.

God has great blessings in store for us,
And He brings new gifts each day;
And new joys will spawn with each rising dawn
If we eagerly seek His way.
But if we grumble to see the sun,
If we long to sleep some more,
If we dote on rest, we will miss the best
Of the riches He holds in store.

God has great blessings in store for us,
And He longs each life to fill,
And the joy we ask will flow through each task
When we eagerly do His will.
But if we grumble our way through work
And despise all labor brings,
If we live for ease, and ourselves to please,
We reject such amazing things!

God has great blessings in store for us;
And the thankful, humble heart
Will rejoice each day to pursue His way,
And be eager His work to start.
But those who grumble because they want
To take charge of life in whole,
Only rob their days of God's glorious praise
That brings joy to each faithful soul!