Blessed and Fully Seasoned!

"And I am praying that you will put into action the generosity that comes from your faith as you understand and experience all the good things we have in Christ.” Philemon 1:6(NLT)

by Alexandra Copeland

It really is astounding to discover how few people believe that God desires to see them blessed. Heavenly Father shared His desire for our lives through the Apostle John in 3John 1:2(KJV). This verse tells us the heart of God. It says, “Beloved, I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health, even as thy soul prospereth.”  God often uses this endearing term “Beloved” in speaking to His people, because He wants us to be confident that we are the apple of His affection. He loves us so much, and in 3John 1:2 we get a clear indication of this. The other fantastic thing that we see in this verse is this word “all”. This word “all” is all inclusive. So to reiterate, God says, “To the people who I so dearly love, above everything else, I greatly want, yearn, and desire for you to prosper. And not only that, I also want, yearn, and desire for you to have good health. I want everything in your life to move in this positive, upward mobility, because this is the direction of a prosperous, saved, and sanctified soul.”

How wonderful to know that we serve, honor, praise, and worship a God who desires nothing but the absolute best for us. He wants our eyes fully open to what He is doing through His love. Living our lives in God’s elevated love lifts everything in around us. We can walk into a room and lighten it just by our presence, but what if we don’t have faith in this? What if you don’t believe that God genuinely wants the best for you specifically?

This is wrong believing, one of the enemy’s most common weapons. The devil plants lies in the world so that people will perpetuate them, and some of the greatest lies that he has planted are those that paint our Heavenly Father as an angry, unforgiving God that punishes His people. Whenever we view God in this way, we open up an artery for our blessings to leak out and for corrosive and harmful conditions to creep into our lives.

In Philemon 1:6(NLT), the Apostle Paul wrote “And I am praying that you will put into action the generosity that comes from your faith as you understand and experience all the good things we have in Christ.” We all know that Paul suffered many things, but in spite of this he knew and understood that our faith in the Lord Jesus Christ brings with it a wealth that is insurmountable; you couldn’t exhaust it if you tried. But there is also something else that Paul said here, and we cannot afford to allow it to slip by our consciences. He hit home the reality that you and I must first UNDERSTAND and EXPERIENCE the multitudinous facets of our faith in him.

When some people see bad things happening to good people, they might think that God doesn’t care enough. They may feel that God should have responded or acted on the person’s behalf or that He should have prevented the bad thing all together. After all, 1Peter 5:7 (NLT) tells us to, “Give all your worries and cares to God, for he cares about you.” So quite naturally, some people might assume that, because God cares for us, bad things should never happen. I dare say that all of the individuals throughout history who have followed the teachings of Christ have experienced obstacles, but this does not mean that God didn’t care. As we grow in faith and experience, we understand so much more about God’s love. We see beyond the surface of our personal difficulties in life to see the glorious plan that He has woven together for all of our sakes. And most importantly, as we learn God’s Word, we learn to work in tandem with His plan, instead of working against it. This is when we really begin to see things brilliantly unfold.

We may not realize it, but our minds and hearts grow stubborn and inflexible through doubt and wrong believing. We become like the individual Jesus Christ referred to in his parable in Matthew 13:21, 22 (NLT):

The seed on the rocky soil represents those who hear the message and immediately receive it with joy. 21 But since they don’t have deep roots, they don’t last long. They fall away as soon as they have problems or are persecuted for believing God’s word. 22 The seed that fell among the thorns represents those who hear God’s word, but all too quickly the message is crowded out by the worries of this life and the lure of wealth, so no fruit is produced.

God created us to be full of life, thriving in all good things, doing wonderful works in the earth. We can only be this way if our belief and understanding of Him is in alignment with His Word. You and I cannot accomplish much if we depend only on our own strength and mental ability. It is through God’s strength and ability that we live and have our being. He infuses us with everything that we need to live the abundant life that Christ made available. We have to lean on Him in order to be the individuals that He has called us to be, but a person isn’t apt to lean on God if he or she doesn’t have an unyielding belief that God will hold them up every single time.

He will absolutely do this! 2Timothy 3:14-17(NLT) admonishes us, “14 But you must remain faithful to the things you have been taught. You know they are true, for you know you can trust those who taught you. 15 You have been taught the holy Scriptures from childhood, and they have given you the wisdom to receive the salvation that comes by trusting in Christ Jesus. 16 All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful to teach us what is true and to make us realize what is wrong in our lives. It corrects us when we are wrong and teaches us to do what is right. 17 God uses it to prepare and equip his people to do every good work.”

As Christians, we must get to the place where it doesn’t matter what we think or feel. It doesn’t matter what others may say. The only thing that matters is the Word, the Word, the Word!!! Paul tells us that we must remain faithful to the Word, because only the Word is useful to teach, prepare, and equip us to do EVERY good work. God wants us blessed and fully seasoned in goodness because He knows that when we are, we’ll be poised to pass it on. We won’t just sprinkle a little here and there, we’ll be ripe with spiritual grace and ready serve it up with extra to spare. Stay enriched in Him!■

Scripture quotations marked (NLT) are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved.

Scripture taken from the New King James Version. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture taken from The Message. Copyright ©1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002. Used by permission of NavPress Publishing Group.