Our understanding of what it means to be blessed by God needs to be enlarged.
It’s not hard to feel blessed when He leads us into “green pastures” and “beside still waters (Psalm 23:2).” It’s harder to feel blessed as He walks us through “valleys of the shadow of death” even with the comfort of knowing He’s with us, “rod and staff” in hand and at the ready (Psalm 23:4). It’s harder to feel blessed as he “prepares a table before me in the presence of our enemies” (Psalm 23:5). In these times of life, it’s harder to rest in the knowledge that, if we belong to the Good Shepherd, “surely goodness and mercy shall follow us all the days of our lives (Psalm 23:6).”
Three weeks ago, the book of Acts went from feeling like a face-paced missionary biography to a drawn-out courtroom procedural. Paul went from freely roaming far and wide with the gospel to a two-year limbo of imprisonment in Herod’s Praetorium, at the mercy of hostile Jewish opponents and wishy-washy Roman politicians. We might not describe Paul’s situation through these chapters of Acts as #blessed, but we would be wrong. Luke continues to help us see behind the curtain, how all of Satan’s hard work to hinder the gospel has really been serving the purposes of the Sovereign Lord Jesus to advance it with all boldness and without hindrance.
In Romans 15:4 Paul reminds us, “whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.” These stories in Acts have power to give us hope to endure by enlarging our understanding of what it means to be blessed by God.
This Sunday, Kenny Clark will be preaching Acts 25 and Cole Jones will be leading us in sung worship. Would you pray for each as they prepare?
See you Sunday, Grace. Come hungry!
Song of the Week
God of Every Grace by Keith & Kristyn Getty, Matt Boswell, and Matt Papa
Now to the God of every grace
Who counts my tears, who holds my days
I sing through sorrows, sing with faith
O praise the God of every grace