Expect a Bigger Gift

As I’ve previously mentioned, my family and I are moving through some challenging situations.

Last week, I received a wonderful blessing from a godly woman who is already doing something wonderful for me. Within the hour, another with a hidden agenda overshadowed that blessing with sneakiness and deception.

What really upset me was not the latter, but its effect. Meaning, the underhanded deed set the tone for my evening, not the generous one. In frustration I texted a friend with a history of ready answesrs for just about every situation.

I wrote: First, I’m hand-fed manna from the Holy Spirit, and then the vultures pick my carcass. All within thirty minutes.

The swift response: Just means the gift wasn’t big enough. Expect a bigger blessing.

For years, my pastor, Fr. Boris Zabrodsky, has consistently preached two things: Walk in praise and Ask for the whole loaf. God, as a loving Father, is poised to dump wonderful things in our lives (“Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap.” Luke 6:38), but we never receive them because we don’t ask for them. We are content to satisfy ourself with crumbs from the king’s table instead of the entire banquetting loaf, with which the Lord of heaven and earth longs to bestow on us.

Somewhere along our journey through life, perhaps because we often see God as a type of Santa Claus who MUST give us what we think we want because, we reason, we’ve been more nice than naughty, and then grow discouraged when He doesn’t bend to our whims. So, we quit asking.

BUT, God wishes us to ask, not in a sense of entitlement, but with complete trust and joyful anticipation. If evil appeared to speak the last word in our lives, that only means more goodness is coming because God always utters the last word.

“Death is swallowed up in victory. O Death, where is your victory? O Death, where is your sting?”  1 Corinthians 15: 54-57

Indeed, the blessings keep coming. So, I keep sending up my requests, plugging along at my daily duties, and remaining open to receive more blessings.

Last Friday, I spent some time on the phone with a good friend and colleague who just received some bad news. I heard him struggling to take the higher faith road by counting his blessings.

This morning as I wrote this blog, I paused to send him this text: Praise God for the abundant life He has waiting for you on the other side of this challenge. For death is never the final answer, look forward to the resurrection.

Amen?