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PROGRAM D-7586
Have you ever refused to take your payroll check? Did you ever turn down a bonus offered to you? Would you ever forget to pick up a million dollars that was being held for you in a safe deposit box? I can’t imagine that any of us would be guilty of any of these things. We are, after all, not stupid and we generally take what’s coming to us.
But did you know that when it comes to our relationship with God, we often don’t take what’s coming to us? We leave blessings unclaimed and never realize what could have been. Just as Jesus wept over Jerusalem because they were not willing to come to him, he must shake his head as he sits in heaven at the right hand of God, looking at all the unclaimed blessings he has for us that we have never claimed.
For example, is there an important relationship in your life which is broken or wounded? Perhaps it’s a relationship with a family member, a mate, a child, a boss, or a coworker. Did you know that God wants to bless you by healing that relationship? Why hasn’t that happened?
Well, it could be possible that you are willing to mend the relationship but the other person isn’t. But more often than not, there’s a problem on both sides when a relationship is broken.
Maybe you haven’t claimed this blessing of a healed relationship because you haven’t been willing to apologize. Oh, I know, the other person needs to apologize, too, and maybe more than you do. But you could make the first move, couldn’t you? I think of a woman who hasn’t spoken to her brother in several years because of a past hurt. She refuses to go to family occasions if he’s going to be there, which messes up Christmas and many other things. But she refuses to be the first to apologize, and so the hurt continues.
Maybe your relationship with your boss is difficult. Could it be that God is unable to heal that relationship because you haven’t been willing to follow biblical instruction concerning submission to authorities, as found in Romans 13? Sometimes our stubbornness keeps us from doing what we know we should do, and that stops God’s blessing on our lives in that area.
Unclaimed blessings . . . think about your relationships today and ask God if you’re missing some blessings that could be yours if you go God’s way.