From Wayward to Wise: Discovering God’s Limitless Blessings

Posted on by Adrian Clark

Isaiah 29:21-24

21 Those who convict the innocent
    by their false testimony will disappear.
A similar fate awaits those who use trickery to pervert justice
    and who tell lies to destroy the innocent.
22 That is why the Lord, who redeemed Abraham, says to the people of Israel,
“My people will no longer be ashamed
    or turn pale with fear.
23 For when they see their many children
    and all the blessings I have given them,
they will recognise the holiness of the Holy One of Jacob.
    They will stand in awe of the God of Israel.
24 Then the wayward will gain understanding,
    and complainers will accept instruction.

We have now reached the end of Isaiah 29 with our verses today. To summarise, this chapter warns of judgment and promises restoration for Jerusalem, addressed poetically as “Ariel”. Because of the city’s pride and religious hypocrisy—honouring God with their lips while their hearts remain far away—God will humble them through an enemy siege. However, He will suddenly scatter these foreign attackers like a fading dream. The chapter condemns the people’s spiritual blindness and their foolish attempt to hide plans from their Creator, like clay questioning the potter. Ultimately, God promises a miraculous reversal where the blind see, the deaf hear, and the humble rejoice in total restoration. But in the process, those who pervert the course of justice and who tell lies “will disappear”. In summary, this chapter reads almost like a fairy story, where good prevails over evil in the last act, and everyone lives happily ever after. 

However, in our verses today, the “people of Israel” were frightened and worried about what would happen, even to the extent of turning “pale with fear”, but they would be ashamed of their behaviour no more, because they would “recognise the holiness of the Holy One of Jacob” in the day when the Lord brought salvation to His people. How would this be confirmed to them? Through their many children and the blessings the Lord had given them. At last, they would recognise God for who He is, after a period of apostasy and neglect of their special relationship. Finally, we find that those who had rejected God, the “wayward” and the “complainers”, would humbly accept that they were wrong, gaining understanding and instruction in the process. 

Perhaps we pilgrims can take a step back today and think once more of the many blessings God has poured out upon us. Paul starts his Ephesian epistle with, “All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms because we are united with Christ“. The next verses continue, “Even before he made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in his eyes. God decided in advance to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ. This is what he wanted to do, and it gave him great pleasure. So we praise God for the glorious grace he has poured out on us who belong to his dear Son. He is so rich in kindness and grace that he purchased our freedom with the blood of his Son and forgave our sins. He has showered his kindness on us, along with all wisdom and understanding” (Ephesians 1:3-8). Our salvation through Jesus is the ultimate blessing, surpassing anything we can find in this world. We appropriate it by faith, as did the saints of old who died before they could see this blessing in reality. Hebrews 11:13, 39, “All these people died still believing what God had promised them. They did not receive what was promised, but they saw it all from a distance and welcomed it. They agreed that they were foreigners and nomads here on earth. … All these people earned a good reputation because of their faith, yet none of them received all that God had promised“. We will not necessarily experience the reality of our salvation in this life, but we certainly will in the life to come. 

But God has provided many other blessings for us in our lives now. In Philippians 4:19 we read Paul’s words, “And this same God who takes care of me will supply all your needs from his glorious riches, which have been given to us in Christ Jesus”. Are we finding ourselves in a place of need today? Then we have the opportunity to reach out to God because He promised to supply all our needs (not wants). Jesus had previously said, “So don’t worry about these things, saying, ‘What will we eat? What will we drink? What will we wear?’ These things dominate the thoughts of unbelievers, but your heavenly Father already knows all your needs. Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need” (Matthew 6:31-33). And perhaps we need to look at what we have and remember what James wrote, “Whatever is good and perfect is a gift coming down to us from God our Father, who created all the lights in the heavens. He never changes or casts a shifting shadow. He chose to give birth to us by giving us his true word. And we, out of all creation, became his prized possession” (James 1:17-18). 

Today, we pilgrims stand with the Israelites, recognising “the holiness of the Holy One of Jacob“. And more, we “will stand in awe of the God of Israel“. Where are we standing today? On shifting sand? Or on the Rock that is never shaken. World systems will come and go, and people will rise and fall with them. With the Psalmist, David, we declare, “He alone is my rock and my salvation, my fortress where I will never be shaken” (Psalm 62:2). 

Dear Loving Heavenly Father. Thank You for Your many and limitless blessings. Forgive us for the times when we have failed to acknowledge Your goodness to us. We worship You today. Amen.

A Blessing

Posted on by Adrian Clark

“Since I was so sure of your understanding and trust, I wanted to give you a double blessing by visiting you twice— first on my way to Macedonia and again when I returned from Macedonia. Then you could send me on my way to Judea.”
2 Corinthians 1:15-16 NLT

Paul’s plan was to visit the Corinthians on his way to Macedonia and then again on the way back, giving them a “double blessing”, but assuming, of course, that his visits would be welcome. Was Paul assuming a bit too much in his expectations? After all, his first letter was quite confrontative and difficult to accept in places. Through it all, however, Paul’s intentions were the highest for his church plant in Corinth, and he agonised much in his prayers and in writing his letters. Imagine sitting in a pew in the Corinthians assembly, hearing Paul’s first letter being read out, and finding what he was saying quite difficult to accept. Would what he had written encourage us, or would it have been something that we would reject, just because it didn’t suit our particular world view or even preferred behaviour? And then, in meeting Paul face-to-face, how would we respond to him? I’m sure most of the converts there would have welcomed Paul’s words for the clarity and correction they provided, but some would still not have been very happy. What about the man publicly exposed for sleeping with his stepmother? I’m sure he wouldn’t have been very welcoming to Paul, even if his name had been removed from the church membership roll. So perhaps Paul’s expectation of being a “double blessing” might have been a bit presumptuous.

In our pilgrim lives today, are we a blessing to those around us, in our circle of friends and family? Do they welcome us when we call, or do they pretend to be out? It all depends on the relational bridge that we have in place. It is impossible to deliver a message of personal correction to someone we don’t know. We need either a friendship robust enough to survive the confrontation or a shared interest that serves as an external factor we both believe in. For example, a police officer or other government official can correct us when we do something wrong. Another example is a visiting preacher who delivers a hard message from the pulpit, perhaps one that demands personal change away from a sinful lifestyle. But on a one-to-one basis, a friendship is necessary to bring any form of correction. I can remember, as a Christian only a few days old in the faith, when the minister called to start me off on the road of discipleship. I resented him for that because the relational bridge wasn’t there, and anyway, I naively thought, who was he to say these things about getting involved in personal prayer and Bible reading? Thankfully, I persevered, and we became good friends.

The Bible, God’s Word, calls us to be a blessing to those around us. But before we can be that, we need to accept the blessings God provides. Ephesians 1:3 roots God’s blessings in Jesus; “All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms because we are united with Christ” (Ephesians 1:3). What are these blessings? Well, they are too numerous to count, but Paul listed a few in Ephesians 1. God loves us and adopts us into His own family through Jesus. He has poured out His grace upon us. He is rich in kindness and purchased our freedom through the blood of Jesus, forgiving our sins. He has showered us with wisdom and understanding. And we must not forget that spiritual blessings are gifts from God, and we have to accept them before they can be absorbed into our souls and spirits.

Jesus asked us to bless those who mistreat us. Luke 6:28, “Bless those who curse you. Pray for those who hurt you”. Paul wrote, “Instead, be kind to each other, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, just as God through Christ has forgiven you” (Ephesians 4:32). Another analogy aligns our presence as a “sweet perfume”. 2 Corinthians 2:14, “But thank God! He has made us his captives and continues to lead us along in Christ’s triumphal procession. Now he uses us to spread the knowledge of Christ everywhere, like a sweet perfume”. We all know the aroma of perfumes, as produced by our cosmetics industries, but what smell do we leave behind us when we pass by? 

As Christians, we have a mission to be a blessing to those around us, but not everyone will accept it. Paul wrote, “To those who are perishing, we are a dreadful smell of death and doom. But to those who are being saved, we are a life-giving perfume. And who is adequate for such a task as this?” (2 Corinthians 2:17). Thankfully, God has equipped us with every spiritual blessing so that we can be His blessing to those around us. Not everyone will accept the blessing, of course, but what can be a greater blessing than the free gift of eternal life? 

Father God. Thank You for all the blessings that You have given us. We open our hands today and receive them gratefully. Amen.

He Delights in Me

Posted on by Adrian Clark

“He rescued me from my powerful enemies, from those who hated me and were too strong for me. They attacked me at a moment when I was in distress, but the Lord supported me. He led me to a place of safety; he rescued me because he delights in me.”
Psalm 18:17-19 NLT

David considered his circumstances and marvelled at the way God had rescued him from the attacks of his “powerful enemies”. Not only did the Lord support him , but He led him to “a place of safety” and all because “He delights in [him]”. The Amplified version interprets Psalm 18:19 as, “He brought me out into a broad place; He rescued me because He was pleased with me and delighted in me”. What an amazing accolade, to say that God is pleased with someone. But how would we know? We might have a personal impression that God “delights in” us but the thing about divine accolades is surely that the Heavenly beneficence is public. But the only way that people will know that God delights in us is in the way we behave. There will be no neon lights in the sky proclaiming God’s pleasure with Joe Bloggs or anyone else. A Heavenly light display such as that was retained for God’s own Son at His birth – “Suddenly, an angel of the Lord appeared among them, and the radiance of the Lord’s glory surrounded them. They were terrified, … Suddenly, the angel was joined by a vast host of others—the armies of heaven—praising God and saying,” (Luke 2:9, 13). But there was another time when a voice from Heaven proclaimed how pleased God was with His Son, as we read in Luke 3:22 at the occasion of Jesus’ baptism, “and the Holy Spirit, in bodily form, descended on him like a dove. And a voice from heaven said, “You are my dearly loved Son, and you bring me great joy.”” 

But today God’s pleasure with someone can be seen publicly in the way they behave. A contentious thought perhaps, but one that many people overlook. For example, if a Christian looks miserable, are they demonstrating God’s pleasure with them? If a believer makes comments that are negative how does that fit in with God’s favour? We pilgrims are God’s testimony of grace and His love to a wayward and evil generation, and our demeanours must reflect that. I was once walking through a pedestrian tunnel under the River Thames in London with many people coming towards me, hurrying to work, and I was struck by the staring, fixed and sad looks on most of the faces I could see. Faces displaying a lack of God’s blessing and favour. Faces trapped in a world of sin and without hope for the future. I was reminded once again that God wants us pilgrims to reach out with messages of Good News, which start with first impressions. Are we smiling or does our facial expressions mirror those of the people around us?

In Psalm 5:12 we read, “Surely, Lord, you bless the righteous; you surround them with your favour as with a shield”. I suppose it goes without saying, that God has no incentive or need to bless an unrighteous person, although such people are included in His blessings, as we read in Matthew 4:45b, “ … He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous”. That is God’s grace in operation. But to fully appreciate God’s beneficence, we need to acknowledge Him and believe in Him, something that the worldly people around us fail to do.

For a believer, the reality is that God will delight in us as we follow His ways. He is with us every step we take, cheering us on when the going gets tough, encouraging us when adversity strikes, blessing us with provision for our needs. But if we feel that God’s favour has left us, then we return to the Cross where we touch base once again with our Saviour, Jesus. Only He has the words of eternal life. Only He can bring hope to the hopeless and favour to the lost.

Dear Father God. With grateful hearts we praise and worship You today for all Your Heavenly favours. It’s all about You and Your glory, and we humbly bow before You today, conscious of all that You have done for us. Amen.