“God wants to bless you beyond your wildest dream! ”

When you read that, did you get excited? And if you did, was it because you thought the blessing would be mainly in physical or spiritual in nature?

If you thought that the “blessing” would be mainly physical in nature – promotion, health, blissful marriage, a lottery jackpot – then you would most likely deny Christ when the moment came.

That is what the twelve disciples of Jesus did. Even after being repeatedly told by Jesus that He would be crucified, they refused to believe Him. The night before He was to be captured, they were still discussing who among them was the greatest (Luke 22:24). This shows that they were expecting to have a high position in the new government with Jesus as its king. And this was further confirmed when they all fled just hours later when Jesus was captured by the Romans.

It never occurred to them that their blessing would be spiritual in nature (the kingdom of God) rather than earthly. (And they fled Jesus because an unexpected thing happened – Jesus being arrested!)

We are no different than the disciples, are we? When we hear of blessings, happiness, rest, freedom – all good things – we think mainly in terms of the physical and temporal. But Jesus never promised physical safety, long life, disease-free body, healthy children, etc. But He did promise to be with us to the end of the age (Matthew 28:20)

– Where does your hope lie? On earth or in heaven? In the kingdom of man or in the kingdom of God?

– Whose approval do you really want? People? Family? Friends? Or God?

Seek for spiritual blessings. Be warned however. Physical hardships may accompany spiritual blessings…

PH