A blessing is an act of God, an extension of His character in the spiritual and physical realms, designed as both a declaration of His will and acknowledgement of a proper response (Psalm 1:1-3). The challenge is to comprehend God’s ‘good and perfect will’ (Romans 12:2) in the midst of circumstances suggesting otherwise.
Do you ever think of God’s mercy? Why should God take any notice of us? We have no claim upon Him at all because: we did not love Him – we were sinners (Romans 5:8), enemies (Romans 5:10), condemned (Romans 5:18); our sins deserved everlasting death, but God had mercy upon us (Psalm 103:8-11). What a merciful thing it is that He had mercy upon us! Had it been otherwise we could never have come back into fellowship with Him and we must forever have been banished from His presence.
The words in v. 3, ‘caused us to be born again’ (John 3:5) means God is the author of our natural and our spiritual life. Physically, we had a natural birthday, but if we are Christians we have also a spiritual birthday, and because of this we are members of God’s family (John 1:11-14); we are His children and are related to Him through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ (Galatians 3:26). Do you ever meditate upon this amazing fact that you are a child of God (1 John 3:1)? You were a child of wrath (Ephesians 2:3), a child of disobedience (Ephesians 2:2), but now you are a child of God – ‘Praise Him!’
The unbeliever has no hope for the future, except a few more years in our sinful world, with tears, wars, fears, alarms, and then physical death and everlasting hell (Ephesians 2:12); but as Christians we have a living hope. The resurrection of the Lord Jesus was His complete victory over sin, death, Hell and Satan, and by His death and through His resurrection He has opened the kingdom of Heaven to every believer. If Jesus had not died and had not risen: no salvation (Acts 4:12); no forgiveness (Acts 13:38-39); no chance of becoming members of God’s family (Ephesians 3:14-15) and no Heaven (John 14:2); but because He died and rose again we now have ‘an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade – kept in heaven…’ (v. 4). What is our inheritance? It is all that is ours now in Christ (Ephesians 1:3); it is all that is ours in the future – “kept in heaven”; but more, our inheritance is the Lord Himself – not the blessings only, but the Blesser (Numbers 18:20; Psalms 16:5-6; 17:15; 73:25). How rich we are! Our inheritance “can never perish”, which means that it is ‘beyond the reach of change and decay’; it will not “spoil”, which means that it is ‘pure’, ‘not touched by earth’s stains’, and it will not “fade”, it will last forever (Matthew 6:19-20).
1 Peter 1:5 “who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation….”
We have a wonderful inheritance waiting for us – but what if we fail and sin against the Lord by grieving Him and backsliding? The answer is that we “through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation….” This is the biblical teaching of the perseverance of the Savior and the preservation of the saints (John 10:27-29; Philippians 1:6; 2 Timothy 4:18).
Note the testing is only “for a little while”, and that we are able to praise the Lord for the trials He permits. We praise Him because these trials and testings have a purpose. God permits them, and indeed sends them for a glorious purpose. Gold is purified by fire. This is one reason why God permits trials and testings. He is disciplining us so that we may be prepared for a reward when we see Him. This truth is clearly taught in Hebrews 12:5-13 (see James 1:12; Romans 8:28-29)
For an illustration we need only to turn to Acts 16:25, where we see Paul and Silas in the prison at Philippi, physically unwell, suffering from the ill treatment they had received, and yet praying and praising God for His goodness (John 15:11). This is not natural joy but supernatural joy. It is rejoicing with “an inexpressible and glorious joy.”
We have been saved from the penalty of sin (Romans 8:1); we are being saved from the power of sin (Romans 8:2); but soon we shall be saved from the very presence of sin – fully engaged with Christ: “Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb 2 through the middle of the street of the city; also, on either side of the river, the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit each month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. 3 No longer will there be anything accursed, but the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and his servants will worship him. 4 They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads. 5 And night will be no more. They will need no light of lamp or sun, for the Lord God will be their light, and they will reign forever and ever” (Revelation 22:1-5).
Conclusion: Seven blessings defy cultural and personal turmoil – all found in the “living hope” of God the Father through Jesus Christ. Do you have this “living hope”?
