The following is an edited reprint of a Written Word post of 5/31/06.
God’s Spiritual Blessings Are Always Conditional
The Beatitudes (from the Greek “happy” or “favored”), which are contained in Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount (Mat. 5.3-12), depict those who are especially favored of God. But there are conditions attached to these blessings; they are not given out to everyone who is poor or who mourns or is meek. No spiritual blessing promised to us is unconditional. If we study all of the promises Jesus made during His ministry, it will become abundantly clear that there are always provisos (conditions) attached. God does not always spell the conditions out for us; He expects us to learn what He wants by studying His Word and listening to His prophets who bring us a word of “edification, and exhortation, and comfort.” (1 Cor. 14.3)
Let’s look at the first three beatitudes. They ascribe blessings to 1) the poor, 2) the meek, and 3) those who mourn. We know from the context these are not promises of natural blessings nor are they indiscriminately bestowed on all who are poor or meek or who mourn. Sinners who are poor will go to hell. The meek who have not turned to Christ will be tormented in the lake of fire. And those who mourn? If they do not mourn for their sins, they will be lost forever.
The Interrelation of Spiritual and Natural Blessings
One day as I was waiting in meditation before God, for some reason I chose to open my eyes as though I could see all the way to heaven and the throne of God. Of course, all that I saw was the ceiling of the room I was in and the walls that were closing me in! That is why we close our eyes when we pray – to shut out that which is material and to open up our vista to things of the spirit. But it struck me that these material things too were blessings of God – the house, the clothes I wear, the car, my ability still to reason (although slightly impaired) and to move around. And then, beyond all that, God gives me spiritual blessings, which are what I need most of all.
Natural and spiritual blessings are not always fully distinct one from the other. Some of my natural blessings are intertwined with the spiritual. In fact, in the life of a true believer the two are often closely aligned with each other. All of my natural possessions are used in my service to God. I use my house in which to worship and praise and pray to God. I use my car (rather, my wife does; I do not get out often) to go on errands of mercy and to go to the house of God. If I did not have the natural ability to reason, I could not worship or pray, and if I were unable to move around at all, I definitely would experience further restrictions in my service to God. If there were no telephone, I could not call or receive calls from someone who is in dire straits and needs a word or whatever I can give to aid them.
Then there is my trusty computer/word processor. Losing the use of the computer would adversely affect my service to God, severely hindering my writing efforts; and writing is the calling given to me by God. If there were no such thing as a computer, and God told me to write, why then of course I would write. But God knows that modern technology is a definite boon to writers, and to others in various vocations, who are as I: they are called to do what they do, but when we view their skill (and mine) from a purely natural angle, we have to admit they are far from first class. We all need help, and it must come from God.
We who have these third and fourth class skills – modest skills that God insists that we use in His service – are required, first of all, to rely on the grace of God to utilize our abilities to the full. Then we, at least in my case I, lean heavily on what the computer can do in offsetting the typos caused by my trembling hand and negating the mistakes incurred by my very faulty memory. That is why God gave us the computer; He gave it for me and for others who are in a leaking boat similar to mine.
Despite these "what if's," God knows all about the interrelationship between natural and spiritual blessings and if the natural should fail, why then, I am sure if God still wanted me to write, I had better resort to the way I was taught to write, by pen or pencil. You ask, "What if the natural blessings fail and you are so debilitated that you can't decipher later what you have written by hand?" (It's not really all that funny; it has happened to me a time or two – or three.)
The children of God are knowledgeable concerning God's will and His ways of operating, so if God clamps an embargo on my writing for one reason or another, I will take it as an indication God wants me to hang up my spurs and leave the writing field either temporarily or on a permanent basis. He alone determines the length of my workday.
But we must remember: There is a limit to what any natural blessing can do for us. For instance, the computer can never inspire me with a thought, it can never anoint me as I write, it is useless as a daily guide and protector and it would be a total absurdity bordering on the blasphemous to expect it to save me.
So we have to keep things in perspective. We could live and work effectively without some of the natural blessings God bestows on us, but we could not survive a second without Him. He is the fount of every blessing and our spiritual and natural well-being depend solely on God.
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