Yesterday a friend came over and we planted Japanese millet adjacent to my farm ponds. Waterfowl love to dine on it and hopefully by duck season they will be feasting on it in big numbers. We have had a brutal heat wave here and have not had any rain in many weeks with none forecast in the foreseeable future. The ground was as hard as concrete, and I had to attach my big disc to break it up prior to using my no till drill disc/cultivator machine to plant.
I got severely dehydrated and almost passed out several times, but we managed to finish, and the fields looked excellent when we finished. I told my buddy that now all we needed was some rain but that looked unlikely. He responded that even a tenth of an inch would help but don’t hold my breath.
We started putting away all the equipment and cleaning up when suddenly I heard thunder. I looked to the west and the sky looked black. Could it be???? Nah . . . Or could it be? . . . By the time he got in his truck and headed down my driveway it began pouring down rain. As near as I can determine we got over a half inch of rain. Then just as fast it cleared right back up. I checked on it this morning and the area I planted got a good soaking. It couldn’t have been more perfect, and the timing was simply unbelievable. I thanked God profusely for the perfect rain and marveled at His perfect timing. Man o’ man what a blessing!
Some will say luck, coincidence, or whatever, but I know it was a special blessing that He gave me. I might add a blessing that I do not deserve. So, with perfect timing I got the following letter from a WFTD reader this morning:
Quick question for you. Without going into personal details . . . How/ Why does God continue to bless me and my family when I am continuing to sin against him? I do my best, but as Paul said, I know what to do, I just don’t do it . . . When you get time I would like to hear your thoughts on this.
I am in the same boat as you and so is everyone else. My feeling is God gives us what we do not deserve because He is good, and He loves us, not due to our good or bad behavior, but out of His love and goodness. We cannot earn His blessings and we all are infected with sin, they are a gift from Jesus, but we can love God with all our hearts even though on occasion we sin. According to Paul we die to self when we become a Christ follower.
Paul explains to the Galatians the mysterious process of dying to self as one in which we have been “crucified with Christ,” and now Paul no longer lives, but Christ lives in us. Paul’s old life, with its propensity to sin and to follow the ways of the world, is dead, and the new Paul is the dwelling place of Christ who lives in and through him. This does not mean that when we “die to self” we become inactive, or crazy, nor do we feel ourselves to be dead. Rather, dying to self means that the things of the old life are put to death, most especially the sinful ways and lifestyles we once engaged in. Galatians 5:24 – “Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires”. Where we once pursued selfish pleasures, we now pursue, with equal passion, that which pleases God.
I know there are many folks who stubbornly think that God is tabulating sins as well as good deeds and the final tally will be the determining factor if one gets into heaven. That is not the case and according to the Bible we cannot work our way into heaven, it only comes through Jesus. Remember God loves us and sent His Son to defeat sin and death. He is the narrow gate, and we must pass through Him to see glory. He blesses us because it is His good pleasure to do so.
I feel the same for my family. They may sin, but I love them more than life itself and would literally take a bullet for any of them including my grandchildren and I would fill them with every blessing in the world if I had the power to do so. If we being sinful have such intense feelings how much more so does God our Father in heaven have them and act upon them?
Matt. 7:13
“Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it.”