Our God Who Acts First

Yesterday we learned the incredible truth that God created us, blessed us, and invited us to flourish. I asked the question, who wouldn’t want to live in that? Unfortunately, when presented with the choice, we chose not to. We arrogantly raised our eyebrows, looked at God, and said, "yeah...no thanks, I’ll do it my way". You can read that story in Genesis 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8...you get the point. Not only was His blessing rejected, but we tried, and still try, to take control of His gifts every single day. We try to claim ownership of "our" time, money, relationships, and gifts. Life became about me, myself, and I. This never worked out and never will... because God’s blessing is found in God’s plan, not ours.

So, here’s the thing, here’s the moment to stop and realize the scope of what God has done. We know He acted first by blessing us. When we threw that in His face and proved that we couldn’t follow His plan, He acted first again; this time by becoming human and stepping into our mess, showing us how to live, and taking the punishment we should receive; then, giving us His righteousness (a right relationship with God) that we don’t deserve, offering complete and utter forgiveness in Himself, and giving us new life through the Holy Spirit who enables us to live in His blessing.

That’s right. He. Is. Amazing.

God’s blessing was restored to humanity in and through Jesus Christ. So, it makes sense that it’s also in and through Jesus that we are invited to flourish once again. Jesus said, “I have come that they might have life and have it abundantly.” I don’t know about you, but I definitely want that.

I want to offer two ways of living in God’s blessing and flourishing.

The first is to “Seek first His Kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.” In the power of the Holy Spirit we choose to re-align our lives with His priorities and make our relationship with Him the most important.

The second is that “The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it.” He invited us to partner with Him and steward what He’s given to us. This means we can’t take ownership of what we have. When we choose to live His way, we find joy. We find gratitude. We find contentment. We find His blessing.

Over the next four days, we will look at these two ways of life within the realms of money, time, relationships, and gifts.