So often I try to tie God's blessing to my actions: "if I do good, God blesses; if I do bad, God withholds blessings." I tend to micromanage this down to, "I did good this week, that's why God blessed me with a good weekend." I'm sure at some level this principle works, but today's passage really opened up my eyes to the fact that God's blessing on a global scale is up to His sovereignty, NOT our merits. Romans 9:10-12 makes it clear that God chose to bless Jacob in a way that he did not bless his brother Esau--not, because of their merits, but because that was how He had planned it.
Who can understand why God would chose to bless one brother and not the other? Does this make God some cosmic bully? No, I'm sure the context of the passage will show otherwise. Yet, it did really put me in my place this morning: my life is less about "me" and my decisions than I often think. My life is in God's hands. He allows me to participate and make choices and bring glory to Him; but on the whole, He has planned and prearranged the whole of my life by His own choosing.
I don't feel that I can fully grasp this concept--God's ways truly are higher than our ways. However, what I can understand is my need to have a smaller view of myself, a bigger view of God, and a thankfulness for all He has chosen to bless me with--not because I'm a good guy, but because He's a gracious God.
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1 comment:
wow, very good stuff. It was a blessing to be reminded of these truths-thx Jason. I pray for less "me" in all I do. Just because I'm doing the "right" things doesn't mean I'm entitled to a proportional amount of blessing from God for it. I do know however, that there is a proportional amount of less earthly consequences to deal with doing "the right things."
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