I have a few friends that have been waiting on a blessing from God and this desire has been the subject of their prayers for a while. Most of them are praying to cross paths and have a relationship with the man God has ordained them to marry, and they are also praying to be in a better place in life as well. Like many of us, they continue to pray fervently for these blessings, but they neglect the Words that Jesus Christ taught in Luke 14:28. He teaches us that before we begin something new, we must count the costs. This means that we must consider the reality that new blessings come with a price, and to pay it, more of us will be required to demonstrate our faith and stewardship to handle them.
In the Old Testament, Saul, the man God had chosen to be king of the children of Israel, had dishonored God, and He chose someone else to be king. The Father spoke to His prophet, Samuel, and told him to go and anoint with oil the man He had chosen. Samuel set about to do this, but he was seeking a man that looked the part on the outside. This was not God’s criteria. The inside of a man’s heart was most important to God. 1Samuel 16:7(NLT) tells us, “But the LORD said to Samuel, "Don't judge by his appearance or height, for I have rejected him. The LORD doesn't see things the way you see them. People judge by outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart.”
There are many things in our hearts today that do not meet God’s requirements. Some of us carry bitterness, jealousy, selfishness, envy, pride, arrogance, impatience, evil, and wickedness in our hearts, even though we are saved. We don’t treat some people well, and pick and choose who is deserving of our grace. We carry these things in our hearts, yet when we pray to God, we expect Him to reward us even though we haven’t repented for the wrong we’ve done. Renewing our minds to His Word is a commandment that we cannot overlook, yet many of us have. We haven’t changed the way we think about sin, and we continue to do the sinful things we’ve always done.
God doesn’t punish us for this. He expects that we will learn about Jesus Christ and understand that when He provides the entry of a new blessing into our lives, the wrong things that we’re holding onto in our hearts must make an exit. They must be crucified. Jesus Christ teaches us in Matthew 6:31-34(NLT), “31 Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and he will give you everything you need. 32 "So don't be afraid, little flock. For it gives your Father great happiness to give you the Kingdom. 33 "Sell your possessions and give to those in need. This will store up treasure for you in heaven! And the purses of heaven never get old or develop holes. Your treasure will be safe; no thief can steal it and no moth can destroy it. 34 Wherever your treasure is, there the desires of your heart will also be.”
To truly seek God’s Kingdom as Jesus Christ commands, we need to examine the things that we cling to so tightly. Are we allowing any of these things to interfere with our relationship with God? For many of us the answer is ‘yes’, and we have to give them up, sacrifice them, and turn them loose for good in order to see the movement we’ve been praying about.
God commands us in Hebrews 12:1 (NLT), “Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a huge crowd of witnesses to the life of faith, let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily trips us up. And let us run with endurance the race God has set before us.” When we ask God for more blessings, we are telling Him that we are also ready to spiritually grow in Christ and to strip off every weight that slows us down. This is very challenging for some of us because we like many of those things. The addictions, phobias, wrong attitudes, and poor behaviors—they make us comfortable, but they are the very things that are holding us back. We need to release them so that we can travel light and witness greater blessings and rewards. This should be an area on which we begin to focus our energies in prayer and diligence. We need to pray for the Father’s guidance and help to release and surrender aspects of our lives that are not pleasing to Him.
Through his actions of love on our behalf, Jesus Christ has taught us that sacrifice is a very important aspect of demonstrating genuine and true love. We will never get away from this truth, and it is not difficult for us to understand. Some of the pleasures that we are currently indulging are a part of our past. They belonged to the person we were before we gave our lives to Christ. Now that we are saved by him, we have a new nature, and God commands us in Colossians 3:10(NLT), “Put on your new nature, and be renewed as you learn to know your Creator and become like him.” When this is our commitment, we will meet God’s requirements. Then, a blessed entry is manifested because all the things that kept it from us has exited our lives. ■
Scripture quotations marked (NLT) are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved.
“The Blessing of An Entry Requires the Sacrifice of An Exit”, written for Springfield Fellowship © 2024. All rights reserved. All praise and honor to God through Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior.
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