Understanding The Delayed Blessing

"Your words have been hard against me, says the Lord. But you say, ‘How have we spoken against you?’ You have said, ‘It is vain to serve God. What is the profit of our keeping his charge or of walking as in mourning before the Lord of hosts? And now we call the arrogant blessed. Evildoers not only prosper but they put God to the test and they escape.’” —  Malachi 3:13-15

So in the book of Malachi, we are reading this back-and-forth argument between God and his people. The people keep questioning God as if they are innocent of any wrongdoing. And God keeps shoveling a mound of evidence back at them.

And what the people desire here is a spiritual and material blessing. And it's not wrong for them to desire these blessings from God. God just told them he would give them these blessings if they would act in obedience to him. So they can rightly expect them. But in the absence of these blessings, they have drawn some wrong conclusions. They have compared themselves with the evildoer and concluded that God blesses the evildoer, not the obedient one. Ultimately they have decided that serving God is pointless because all his blessings are going to evildoers. They suggest God is not a just judge and serving him is pointless.

One of the challenges we face in seasons of delayed blessing is how to fix our state of non-blessing. Many times our minds will spin searching for probable answers. We will reason about what we see and what we know. And if we are not anchored in God's Truth, we might come to wrong conclusions. That's what God's people did here. They made a wrong assumption about themselves — that they were sinless. And then, out of this, they made a wrong conclusion — they are righteous and not blessed, while the evildoer is being blessed. And this resulted in a very wrong conclusion — God is not just, and serving him is pointless.

So if you are in a season of delayed blessing, be careful, brother. It is easy to assume, then compare, and as a result, come to wrong conclusions about God. Instead, anchor your mind in God's Truth and preach it to yourself. Be obedient, and blessings will come. God is always faithful.

ASK THIS: Are you in a season of delayed blessing?

DO THIS: Preach the truth to your mind. Be obedient. God is faithful.

PRAY THIS: God, I confess I feel like you are delayed in my need for blessing. Forgive me for any known and unknown wrong I have done. Cleanse me and shower me with blessings from on high.

PLAY THIS: 10,000 Reasons (Bless the Lord).