Dear BPCWAians, We saw the meaning of blessings and that God sends both blessings and curses. Let us see what are not some of the reasons why God blesses you for obedience, why we can have wrong ideas of why God should bless for obedience, and then the key reason why God blesses you for your obedience.

What are not the reasons why God blesses for obedience. Let us first consider what are not the reasons why God blesses His child when he obeys. 1) God does not bless for obedience because it is to reward us for it. Blessings are not rewards for us to keep and use for our own carnal purposes and sinful pleasures. Blessings for obedience is not like a father rewarding a child with ice cream for good behaviour because he knows his child loves ice cream. Neither is it like a father who wants the child to obey him so he promises ice cream knowing ice cream is what the child wants. 2) God’s reward for blessings is not to incentivise us to lust for things for ourselves and to live for own pleasures. Hence a child of God should not pray to God for blessings by promising to obey Him if God would only grant him the blessing he seeks. This is called bargaining to get what we want for ourselves. It would be very displeasing to God.

Why do we wrongly seek blessings for obedience? How does such a concept of “blessings for obedience to get what I want for myself” arise in our hearts? For many of us, it is a learned behaviour from our upbringing. Parents should not reward obedience in a child for the above wrong reasons. Do remember that you represent God’s authority and His image in your home. That is why God commands your child to honour and obey you. When you behave like that, you are teaching your child to obey in order to get what he wants. The child will also bring this learned behaviour to God.

Can you accept that God does not need to bless you for your life of obedience? Another reason is that we are often conditioned by society to do something only if it benefits you in return. It is an issue of pride. We think so highly of ourselves that we expect God should give us something in return for us obeying Him. The child of God must come to the humble realisation that obedience is simply our duty. How do you feel if I were to tell you that “you owe God your obedience”? Unhappy? Angry? Unable to accept it? But our Lord Jesus stated, “(9) Doth he thank that servant because he did the things that were commanded him? I trow not. (10) So likewise ye, when ye shall have done all those things which are commanded you, say, We are unprofitable servants: we have done that which was our duty to do” (Luk 17:9-10). We are unprofitable servants purchased by His Blood, and when we do anything in obedience, God tells us to say that it is but our duty to have done so! God does not owe us anything. We owe Him everything instead. He purchased us with His Precious Blood. And even if He did not, we still owe Him our obedience. Why? Well, simply because He is the Sovereign God!

The consequences of obeying in expectation for personal blessings. If you do not change in your thinking that God owes it to you to bless you because you obeyed Him, you can become bitter and complain to God, “I have obeyed and served You faithfully, so why did You allow this sickness/ loss/suffering into my life?” You will become bitter and miserable. But more frightening is that such a way of thinking is nothing less than being insolent against God. I sincerely hope that each one of us will change our thinking if we have been obeying God and consciously or subconsciously expecting that He should bless us for our obedience. Only when we change, then will we obey out of love and gratefulness to our Saviour.

Why does God bless you for obedience? One often overlooked reason is that He does so because of stewardship. When God knows that we have been proven obedient, we can be trusted with more as good stewards. Remember the Psalmist who sought blessings from God in Psalm 67:1-2 because he wanted God’s ways to be known on earth? Why would not God want to bless him? Stewardship is taking care of what God gives us to make sure they are not wasted, but instead used for the Master’s profit. Well you might ask, ‘“Did  not God say that He “ … giveth us richly all things to enjoy”’ (1Tim 6:17)? Well, read the rest of the verses that follow. The reasons God gives blessings to believers is so “(18) That they do good, that they be rich in good works, ready to distribute, willing to communicate” (1 Tim 6:18). God’s reason for blessing us is about selfless stewardship, not hedonistic selfish enjoyment. The good steward finds joy in using what the Master puts in his hands for His purposes. The more you obey, doing what are mentioned in 1 Tim 6:18, the more God will bless you. The more you enjoy doing what God commands for the use of His blessings, the more richly He will bless you. This is because He knows you will not keep it for your own enjoyment and hence can be trusted with more. Moreover, God blesses you so that you can serve Him better. For example, God blesses you as a student, worker, homemaker or retiree with help, abilities, and health so that you can spend time to learn about Him and serve Him when called upon. If God blesses you such that you can do things faster, are able to bring your child to church, and have a skill to help in some tasks for His church, you should not use the extra time and opportunities to surf the net, go shopping, and watch movies. When God gives you health, it is not for you to waste it away in going around town on an eating fest or just meeting up with friends and engaging in worldly conversations. When God gives you children, it is not for you to stay away from church, make the child your world, and have a grandchild for your parents to spoil and dote upon. If you continue to do so, do not be surprised that God would remove the blessings because they are wasted on you for His kingdom.

So why do you want to obey God and receive blessings? Because you enjoy being a good steward of His blessings of time, talents, and possessions. Why would not God bless you richly in these since it will be richly used for His kingdom!

Yours in our Lord’s service

Pastor