Many years ago (1991), My wife and I received in the mail a notice that we had won an expensive home entertainment center, an all-expense-paid-trip for two to Hawaii, or $5,000 cash. All we had to do was send a self-addressed, stamped envelope, and they would notify us which prize was ours.
Now, I shouldn’t have done it, but I did. I sent the self-addressed, stamped envelope.
A couple of weeks later, we got a nice brochure in the mail describing our “all-expense-paid-trip for two to Hawaii.” There was only one catch. For our “free” trip, all we had to do was send them enough money to pay for one round-trip air fare to Hawaii, plus $15 for processing.
So much for the “all-expense-paid-trip” to Hawaii. What they didn’t tell us was that WE would be paying the expenses. Their promised blessing had a catch, a condition added to it.
Not so with God’s promised blessings. There is no catch. There are no added conditions. God doesn’t promise us an all-expense-paid-trip to heaven and then turn around and say, “Oh, by the way, you have to do this and that before you can go.” No.