Wear Your Blessings Well

I was listening to Pastor Joel Osteen's sermon 'Wear Your Blessings Well' and I thought of sharing highlights of his message. This came about because we were sharing our testimonies during care group last night and we realised that many of us were still quite shy about sharing how the Lord has blessed us richly. One sister was sharing how unfairly good God had been to her. She quoted the example of how she did not manage to study much for her university subjects compared to her friend who put in so much effort and yet her results were amongst the top 25% when her friend's results was amongst the bottom half. When her friend saw that, she was really upset and this dear sister was so apologetic for her good results.

In actual fact, I believe many of us can relate to such experiences. It is so true that many of these so-called friends actually got jealous and turn away from us when they saw how blessed we became. Sometimes, in an attempt not to be unpopular, we purposely downplay the blessings that God had so freely lavished on us. We thought that would be humble. On the contrary, that would not be what God wanted us to do. He wants us to boast about His love and His blessings on His children.

Sometimes when our desires are fulfilled and we see that other brothers and sisters are still waiting for God's promise to manifest, we hesitate to show our joy and to give thanks to the Lord for our blessings. We thought that this would be showing off and would make others more depressed. On the contrary, our testimony would not discourage them because we could tell them that God is no respector of persons. What He did for us, He could do it for them too. It is not by our own efforts or strength that these blessings came about, it is purely by the Spirit of God. Psalm 118:24 says 'The Lord has done it for us. It is marvelous in our eyes.'

My caregroup leader had this desire to learn photography and was seeking to buy a secondhand camera at a good price. For nine months, he was using his own efforts to search for the best deal but he couldn't find one. So he decided to rest and just let God take care of this issue for him. When he did so, God brought to his path an acquaintance who was thinking of upgrading his camera. My caregroup leader asked if he could sell his used camera at a good price. He agreed to sell his camera at about one third of what would be sold elsewhere. However, when the day came for this guy to deliver the camera, he actually threw in a lot of other stuff and the best part was he gave everything as a gift to my caregroup leader!

Wow, I was so excited when I heard this testimony! Our God is so so good - He not only fulfilled my caregroup leader's desire, He did it in such a way that was above and beyond what he could ask or imagine! This is the kind of God that we serve, so we do not have to apologise for His blessings in our life. Instead we should learn to wear our blessings well. We are made to be so blessed that other people not only would notice, they want the very God that we serve! All glory to God!