PROGRAM W-1771 – Part I
We usually use the expression, “He got what’s coming to him” in a negative sense, meaning something bad happened to a person who deserved it. But I want to change that and ask you if you’ve gotten what’s coming to you? Let me explain.
When a person makes a decision to accept Jesus Christ into his or her life and become a Christian, the Bible tells us that this person is now a new creation. The old has passed; the new has come. For those of us who’ve experienced that transformation, we can testify that it is true: Jesus makes us new; we are born again with a new life. Our sins are forgiven and we have peace with God. I hope you have made that decision and know exactly what I’m talking about.
However, if you have not yet accepted the Lord Jesus Christ as your own personal Savior and you’re still struggling with the guilt of sin and the lack of forgiveness in your life, I want to encourage you to find a good church or minister who can show you from God’s Word what it takes to become that new creation in Christ. You can always contact us here at The Christian Working Woman and we’ll be glad to help you become a Christian through faith in Christ.
For those who are believers, the Bible tells us of all kinds of blessings that our Heavenly Father is ready to give us. Because we’re part of the family of God, we are entitled, so to speak, to receive his special gifts and good things. Certainly we don’t deserve them, but we have a loving Heavenly Father who wants to give good things to us.
Yet, strange as it sounds, we often leave blessings unclaimed and never realize what could have been. Why are we missing our blessings? What in the world would cause us to miss out on the special gifts and good things God has for us as his children?
1. Laziness/Lack of Discipline
Sometimes it’s because we’re lazy and undisciplined. Jesus said, “Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them” (John 13:17). The blessing is in the doing, so we often miss our blessings because we don’t do.
And why don’t we do? Laziness. Lack of discipline. God often has blessings waiting for us, yet they are going unclaimed because we’re not willing to put in the work, effort, dependability, and discipline required to get those blessings.
Remember the parable of the talents. Three servants were given talents to use and were told to multiply their talents. Two of them did this and they were highly blessed by the Master. He told them: “Well done, good and faithful servant. . .” (Matthew 25:21), and then he said because they had been faithful in a few things, he would put them in charge of many things. What a blessing! They got a promotion and recognition, and in addition, the Master said, “Come and share your master’s happiness!” (Matthew 25:21). Blessings on top of blessings were theirs because they worked hard and were disciplined.
The other servant who failed to use his resource—who sat down and did nothing, who threw a pity party and felt sorry for himself because he only had one talent—missed his blessing because he refused to work hard and was not disciplined. He just hid his one talent and did nothing.
Listen to what the Master said to him when he returned for an accounting:
“You wicked, lazy servant! . . .Take the talent from him and give it to the one who has the ten talents. . . And throw that worthless servant outside, into the darkness where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” (Matthew 25:26-30)
This parable teaches us that Jesus is not soft on laziness! He hates it. You and I have a great deal to lose if we are lazy servants.
Now, lazy doesn’t necessarily mean you sit home all the time eating chocolates and watching television. It means you aren’t willing to expend the energy and time required to use your gifts and talents for the Lord. It means you just do the least amount you have to do to get by. It means if someone else will do it, you let them do it. It means you’ve gotten into a habit of laziness and now it’s become an addiction. It means that even though you know you need some discipline in some area of your life, you aren’t willing to implement the discipline.
Notice what laziness gets you: weeping and gnashing of teeth. What is gnashing of teeth? The dictionary says it’s grinding your teeth together in rage or pain. It gets you darkness—perhaps darkness of spirit, depression, a feeling of worthlessness, jealousy, self-pity, or misery. Solomon warned us that he who ignores discipline comes to poverty and shame.
What blessings are you missing because of laziness or lack of discipline? Is it worth it?
2. Feelings of unworthiness
A second reason we may miss our blessings is because we just can’t believe God has good gifts for us. Is it difficult for you to believe that you have a loving Heavenly Father who wants to give you blessings? We read in Isaiah 30:18 the following:
Yet the Lord longs to be gracious to you; he rises to show you compassion.
And Jeremiah 29:11 says this:
“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future”
It may look like super humility to continually talk about how unworthy you are, but what it actually demonstrates is that you don’t really understand the love of God and the kind of Heavenly Father you have. Your Heavenly Father knows the worst about you and loves you still. He loves to do good things for you and to give you blessings. But if you are unwilling to accept his gifts, he won’t force them on you.
Think about this: When we have this attitude of “I’m not worthy,” we are focusing on ourselves rather than on our Heavenly Father. Anytime we are self-focused, our thoughts and attitudes will be skewed and corrupted. When we fix our eyes on Jesus, the Author and Perfecter of our faith, we don’t get caught in this “I’m not worthy” thought pattern because we know that God blesses us because of who he is, not who we are.
Once you understand this, you’ll be standing in line to get the blessings that come to you because of Jesus and what he has done for you.
3. Disobedience
A third reason we miss out on our blessings is because of disobedience. If you’re a parent, you’ve no doubt said to your children something like this: If you’d just mind me and do what I say, you wouldn’t have any trouble. A child who obeys is a great joy to any parent.
And the same is true of our Heavenly Parent. Let me highlight a few verses from Psalm 81:
“I am the Lord your God who brought you up out of Egypt. Open wide your mouth and I will fill it. But my people would not listen to me; Israel would not submit to me. So I gave them over to their stubborn hearts to follow their own devices. If my people would but listen to me, if Israel would follow my ways, how quickly would I subdue their enemies and turn my hand against their foes! . . . You would be fed with the finest of wheat; with honey from the rock I would satisfy you.” (Psalm 81:10-16)
Time and again the Lord lamented Israel’s lack of obedience because it kept him from pouring blessings on them as he wanted to. The same is true for us today: When we refuse to obey God, we forfeit untold blessings which God wants to shower on us.
Are you in a state of rebellion against God? It may be a major one or a minor one, but when you rebel against God’s control in your life, you plug up all his blessings. He’s got baskets full of blessings waiting to pour on you, whenever you ask for forgiveness and forsake your rebellion. Is your stubborn heart keeping you from what God wants to do for you and through you?
Maybe it’s in the integrity or purity of your life. Do you cut corners here and there to make yourself look better or gain some advantage? Do you lie on occasion to get what you want? Are you messing around with some sexual infidelity or immoral relationship? God can’t pour out blessings on you when you refuse to obey him.
When we stop and evaluate what we’re missing, I think we’d all agree that we’re foolish to let any of these things keep us from the blessings God is ready to give us. I can just imagine standing in heaven and Jesus looking at me and saying, “Here’s all the blessings and good things I had ready to pour on you, but you were lazy and missed them, or you were rebellious and I couldn’t give them to you, or you just didn’t believe I wanted to do good things for you so you never asked.”