Do Not Blame - Bless

How often do we want to blame God for so many of the troubles in our lives and then rationalize those thoughts, offering, “If He really loved me, He would never have allowed this to happen to me.”

We are human. We are fallible. We often choose to blame rather than to bless.

But what if the hardest trials in our lives are truly merciful blessings? What if it is because of His unending love for us that He allows us to go through hard times? And what if our reaction to what befalls us could not just bless others, but actually bless God?

The good in our trials may be hidden for the moment, but we are only seeing a very small part of a much grander picture. God however, sees the whole thing --- the completed masterpiece that He designing and it is glorious beyond our greatest imaginings.

It can be very difficult for us to look outside of ourselves when we are going through a tough time, but so often what we are going through changes other lives as well. It was not just meant for us, but God sees all the ways in which other lives will be touched.

It can be like ripples on the water, whether caused by a pea-sized pebble, or a mountainous rock crashing right into the middle of our proverbial pond, the splash and reverberations that follow flow out with enlarging circles that we can lose sight of.

But God doesn’t. He sees it all. Every motion on the waters of every life.

We each tend to have our own ideas of how our lives should go, but God knows infinitely better than us what we truly need and what will actually be a blessing to us not just now, but far into the future, and He sees all the ways it will continue on to others.

Our trials and pain tend to remind us there is something wrong, that it is not supposed to be this way, and we can either choose to react in despair, anger, or resentment, with ripples of these emotions reaching far into other lives, or we can remember there is so much more to come than what is contained in our short years on earth.

With our eternal future in mind, we can choose to have hope, and have faith, and to trust in the One who does see the bigger picture, who loves us infinitely, and who is already there and can see the good He is working out through every trial.

When we trust in God’s goodness and give thanks to Him, even in the midst of our pain, it is pleasing to Him, and it blesses Him.

Doesn't that thrill your heart? 

The realization that our faith lived out with thanksgiving and praise can bless the God of the universe?!

Oh, how I want to bless my Father!

I want to live my life in such a way that when a trial comes plunging in, 

the effect of it will actually flow out in circles of endless praise that will

Bless His Name!!

I will extol you, my God and King,

and bless your name forever and ever.

Every day I will bless you

and praise your name forever and ever.

- Psalm 145:1–2 (ESV)

All your works shall give thanks to you,

O Lord, and all your saints shall bless you!

- Psalm 145:10 (ESV)