If you look up the word blessing in the dictionary, you’ll find out that it’s an indication of God’s special favor or protection.  So when you say “God bless you” after someone sneezes, at least technically you’re asking God to guard that person from harm and enrich the person’s general well-being.  Of course most of us don’t really think through all of that after someone sneezes—the blessings we pronounce on others these days are primarily meaningless social conventions rather than heartfelt prayers.

God’s blessings on you are another story altogether.

OK, let’s get personal because God’s blessings to you are just that—personal.  In other words, they’re created exactly for you—for your needs, your personality, and your desires.  A blessing you’ve been craving all you life might mean nothing at all to someone else.  And something that’s “no big deal” to you might be the cherished treasure another has been longing for.  It’s like that perfect gift . . . there are some gifts that you open and then politely say, “That’s nice.”  But there are other gifts that cause you to shout, “Yes! It’s exactly what I’ve always wanted!”  Those are the blessings God gives—the ones you’ve always wanted . . . whether you knew it or not.

Here’s something Dave recently witnessed—a story that includes a tailor-made blessing straight from God:

John is a pastor who’d been sent all the way from a remote part of Kenya to complete some of our training in Ohio.  Soon after John arrived, he got a call from his brother back home in Kenya.  From the look on John’s face, it was clear he’d just received terrible news.  Dave’s wife, Pam, thought maybe someone close to him had died until Pastor John related this awful news:  “Bandits have come in the night and taken my family’s milk cow.”

It may not sound like a big deal to you.  However, in the famine stricken area where John’s from, that one cow was all that stood between John’s family, the eleven orphans he had adopted, and almost certain starvation.  By the time he finished talking Pam knew she had to do something right away.  Minutes later, normally frugal Pam was already in her car on the way to the Western Union office to wire John’s family enough money (out of her own pocket) to buy a top-quality milk cow.  Meanwhile, within 10 minutes of letting some of the other conference attendees know of his need, John had more than enough money to buy three cows!

Though John felt certain God had wanted him to come to America, he’d been deeply concerned for his family and for his little village ever since he’d left.  Overwhelmed by the immediate and generous response from people he’d never even met, John tearfully reflected, “If I had been home, I would have fought those bandits to try and stop them from stealing the cow . . . and I probably would have been killed.  God is so good.  I trusted him enough to come here . . . now he has saved both my family and me!”

John didn’t use the extra money God had provided to buy two more cows.  No, he gave away all the rest to teachers in his village school—teachers who hadn’t been paid in over a year!  “God has blessed me,” Pastor John explained, “How could I do any less for them?”

The blessings John received weren’t just concerned words, they were also compassionate actions that flowed to him in his hour of need, and then overflowed from him to bless many others.  Maybe that’s what James was getting at when he wrote, “Whatever is good and perfect comes to us from God our Father, who created all the lights in the heavens” (James 1:17).

Our heavenly Father delights in pouring down both “good gifts” and “perfect gifts” into our lives.  Material things such as food, money, laptop computers, plasma screen TVs, and even cows are good gifts. While they last, these gifts provide for our temporary needs, but they’re certainly not perfect—eventually they wear off, get lost, break, or even die.  A perfect gift is one that can’t be stolen, keeps on working no matter what, and never, ever fails.  The only force in the universe that fits that bill is God’s perfect love for you.

God Wants to Pour Our His Favor

Take a look at one of the Bible’s most comprehensive lists of blessings in Deuteronomy 28:1-14.  According to this passage, God says he wants to pour out his favor . . .

Believe it or not, this is an abbreviated list!  These are some seriously great blessings that cover the entire spectrum from urban to rural, family to farm animals, kitchen utensils to careers.

God wants to generously pour out his blessings on each of us who genuinely asks, seeks, and knocks on his door (Matthew 7:7; Luke 11:9; John 16:24; Revelation 3:20).  As Pastor John’s experience illustrates, this doesn’t mean that we’ll be immune to famine, natural disasters, and other problems that affect those around us.  No.  It just means that God will never stop loving us or trying to pour rich blessings into our lives—even in the midst of hardship.

We don’t want to be misinterpreted here.  Perhaps you’ve heard preachers encouraging their followers to treat God like a kind of giant “vending machine in the sky,” dispensing his big bank accounts and BMWs.  As some tell it, all you have to do in order to get something out of the vending machine is put money into the slot—by donating to their ministries.  And guess what, the more you give, the more you’ll get.  If the diamond rings on some preachers’ fingers—and the shiny rides in their garages—are any indication, too many people are buying this message.

Then there’s the equally unbiblical (and all-American) idea that blessings are the natural result of hard work.  In this view, the more diligently you apply yourself, and the better you do the more favor you’ll earn from God.  This “gospel” of hard work naturally appeals to successful high achievers, but it’s completely at odds with the picture God has given us.  “To him who is thirsty,” he proclaims, “I will give to drink without cost from the spring of the water of life” (Revelation 21:6b, NIV, emphasis added).  In other words, if you thirst for more of God’s favor, you can have it for free—no donations or hard work required.  All God is looking for is thirst!

Though many of the good things God wants to give us are material, that’s certainly not all he has for us—not by a long shot.  Stop and think for a minute about Jesus and his 12 closest followers as they walked the earth together.  That’s just it . . . they walked.  It’s pretty clear they weren’t cruising along from town to town in stylish carriages or chariots.  The only time Jesus is ever pictured riding during his ministry is on the back of a lowly baby donkey (Matthew 21:5).  He and his entourage didn’t stay in fine hotels or fancy villas.  Matthew and Luke both record him saying, “Foxes have dens to live in, and birds have nests, but the Son of Man has no place even to lay his head” (Matthew 8:20; Luke 9:58).

Franco Zeffirelli’s famous 1977 movie, Jesus of Nazareth, captures this truth well in one scene when it pictures Jesus waking up one morning from a sound night’s sleep . . . on a sidewalk in Jerusalem!  One of the disciples wakes him up saying, “Master, someone is here who needs to see you!”  Although thousands sat at his feet to listen to his teachings, and powerful leaders came to beg his advice, Jesus made his bed on the street like a homeless person.  And according to his own words, that’s what he was.

Yet none of us would say that Jesus wasn’t blessed.  Though he wasn’t wealthy, Jesus had exactly what he needed . . . and all that he desired.

An Extreme Makeover

Whether you are rich or poor, God wants to bless you both spiritually and materially.  Paul writes in Ephesians 3:20, “Now all glory to God, who is able, through his mighty power at work within us, to accomplish infinitely more than we might ask or think.”  Though you might be able to think up some pretty spectacular ways for God to bless you, our experience tells us that what God has in mind for you is even better than you could imagine!  To use a pop-culture reference, God wants to bowl you over with the supernatural equivalent of Extreme Makeover: Home Edition.  In case you’ve never seen or heard of it, this popular TV series showcases a team of professional designers, contractors, and hundreds of volunteers as they remodel the house of a deserving family.  But they don’t just simply lay new tile or knock down a few walls; they take enormous pains to build what’s basically a completely new house—one in which every family member’s wildest dreams can come true.

Every show begins the same way: The design team—in their gleaming, million-dollar tour bus—shows up at some tiny, dilapidated hovel.  Tragic music plays as the host takes viewers on a tour of the terrible conditions the family has endured.  Then they send the family away on a luxury cruise or extravagant Disneyland vacation while the designers go to work transforming the family’s barely habitable house into a luxurious dream home—in just seven days.  On the seventh day, the team parks the designers’ tour bus in front of the now breathtaking house, and then all the family’s neighbors and friends gather out in front of the bus and cheer as the family arrives.  Now all that stands between the family and their incredible new dream home is a huge bus.  And everyone begins to cry out together, “Move that bus!”

For us, the real fun of the show is watching the designers lovingly create rooms and experiences, each one premeditated to blow the minds of the family members.  We think it’s a cool picture of what God does for each one of us.  God is anxiously and eagerly waiting to reveal a life different and far better than anything you’ve been hoping for—a life he has tailor-made just for you, a life he knows is exactly what you’ve always wanted, and a life that will blow your mind.  All you have to do is honestly believe in God’s love for you . . . and then shout, “Move that bus!”

Doug’s Extreme Makeover

We have a friend named Doug who leads a growing church in Dayton, Ohio.  When he first started, some might have said that Doug’s speaking style wasn’t quite ready for prime time.  But the great thing about Doug is that he has allowed God to do the kind of “extreme makeover” we’ve been talking about in his life.  You can tell what’s happened to him just by listening to his answering machine.  It says something like: “I’m not here right now because I’m out doing all kinds of good things for all kinds of people and having more fun than a human being should have.  Go ahead and leave a message and I’ll call you back.”  Doug’s extremely generous attitude has helped his little church grow into one of the largest, most powerful, and most enjoyable places in town.

In fact, his church likes to throw big parties they call ‘Fun Fests.”  These Fun Fests often draw as many as 4,500 neighbors from the community for a time of hanging out, eating, playing games, and, in general, having a wonderful time with family and friends.  The best thing about Doug’s church is that it’s not about Doug.  It’s not about his speaking ability or his personality or even the cool things Doug does.  Instead, Doug’s church is about receiving so much from God that Doug and his whole congregation can’t—and don’t want to—contain it.  So God’s love and blessings constantly flow out of the church—touching and enriching more lives every day.

Doesn’t that sound great?

We know that for many it’s hard to imagine going to a church, or for that matter, living a life like Doug’s.  As far as you may be concerned, if there is a blessing-bus waiting out there for you, it has yet to pull up at your life’s front door.  Perhaps you’re worn out from struggling to keep you head above water at work.  Maybe you’re so lonely and depressed you can’t imagine that God, or anyone else, cares what happens to you.  Or perhaps you’ve stood helpless as the wonderful life you thought you had disintegrated before your eyes.  To use an image from the previous reading, if your life is meant to flow like a fountain, right now there’s something seriously wrong with the pump.   If this describes your situation even a little bit, the next reading is all about things that can clog the inflow and outflow of blessings in your life.

Getting Your Feet Wet  (Feel free to comment on any of the statements/questions noted below)

Sometimes we forget or take the good things that have happened in our lives for granted.  Here’s an idea that will help you remember.  Find a pickle jar or similar transparent container, a permanent fine-point marker, and some small, smooth stones you can write on (or you can just use scraps of paper).  Take a minute and ask God to remind you of some of the blessings you’ve experienced in your life during the last year.  As you think of each one, thank God for it.  Then write a brief description of the blessing on one of the rocks and put it in the jar.

Leave the jar in your kitchen or somewhere you pass by every day.  As blessings flow into your life, give thanks, write what happened on one of these “stones of remembrance,” and toss it into the jar.  If you keep it up, you’ll be amazed at how quickly your jar fills up and overflows.

The Reflection Pool (Questions for comments)

• What do you immediately consider “blessings” in your life?  Why?
• Consider Matthew 7:7-8.  What are the implications of these verses for your life?

A Reading from “Outflow” by Sjogren and Ping