Are You in a Position to be Blessed?

When I was a boy growing up in the Deep South, I occasionally went fresh water fishing in the bayous near my home. As directed by the more experienced fishermen, I learned to cast a top water fly close to the appropriate target in the hopes of attracting a large mouth bass; likely under a low hanging branch or fallen tree. Over the years, I was as successful as my companions and considered myself an able fly fisherman

Many years later, I moved to Georgia, near the Florida border. As I met new people, I noticed that many of my friends had large stuffed bass on their walls, much larger than those I had caught in my home state. Soon I had the opportunity to go fishing with a friend from church. This older gentleman, an experienced and successful angler, used an entirely different method than I had learned. Rather than casting flies on top of the water, he used sinking lures that he cast near the bank and retrieved rhythmically, raising and lowering the lure in the water as he reeled it in. Sure enough, that morning he caught a prize bass.

What I discovered was that, despite years of fishing, I didn’t know much about catching the big ones. And to top it off, I had not been fishing in the best place! Let’s just say that, in Georgia and Florida, five to ten pound bass are much more common than where I come from.

I am reminded of the story of a young man who needed a job badly. Day after day, he prayed for something to show up in the mail, but no offer came. He was just about flat broke when he cried out to God in anguish, pleading for a job. Suddenly, he heard a voice, clearly and distinctly: “Fill out an application and send it in.”

My point is that we need to put ourselves in a position where God can bless us. The scriptures offer numerous examples of saints whom God instructed to move to a place of receiving.

If you visit any warehouse, you’ll notice that there is both a receiving dock for incoming freight and a shipping dock for outgoing packages. Why? Simply because the receiving dock is organized and prepared to receive goods and then process them. If inbound cargo were to arrive at the shipping dock, it would disrupt the flow of materials.

Are you expecting goods but working some place other than the “Receiving Dock?” And, if so, have you thought about relocating to a place where God is more likely to bless you? God’s children need to be prepared to receive.

If you are a gifted mathematician, shouldn’t you attend MIT, Stanford, or a similar place where the instruction you need is offered? If you want to learn Italian, shouldn’t you consider a semester in Italy, where the finer points of the language are used? To carry the point to the obvious, if you want to swim, find a pool and jump in.

The scriptures contain many examples of God instructing His children to go to a place of blessing. In 2 Timothy 3:16, The Lord tells the thirsty Israelites to “Make this valley full of ditches.” In other words, prepare to receive what you want: water. If they had not prepared, what would they do when the water arrived?

In John 21:1-6, Peter, Thomas, Nathaniel, James, and John had been fishing all night without anything to show for it. In the morning, Jesus told them to “Throw out your net on the right-hand side of the boat, and you’ll get plenty of them!” (Living Bible) They simply needed to obediently put themselves in a position to be blessed. If you have a fear of failure, just remember that you’re not responsible for the outcome, you’re just responsible for obeying.

Acts 1:4 tells us that the apostles were to wait in a particular place, Jerusalem, for the blessing of the Holy Spirit. “And, being assembled together with them, commanded them that they should not depart from Jerusalem, but wait for the promise ….”

You may feel that where you are is really not where God wants you to be. A good indicator of being in the wrong place would be an unhealthy emotional climate, where your skills are not used fully. You may decide that you would be better off elsewhere, perhaps in a place more fitting with Christian values.

As the bride of Christ, you should “fit in with your husband's plans.” (1 Peter 3:1, The Living Bible) Accept that God wants to fulfill His purposes in your life, including giving you the desires of thine heart. (Psalm 37:4) Then, actively cooperate with the Lord about getting to the place of blessing. Like Paul, Timothy, Mark, and many others, be a fellow laborer with Christ.

“And if you do as I say in this letter, then you, too, will be full of joy, and so will we.” (1 John 1:4, The Living Bible.)

Source: By Curtis C. Mosley © 2003
http://www.livingthesolution.com/positiontobeblessed.htm