Psalms 119:1-8
1-8 You’re blessed when you stay on course, walking steadily on the road revealed by GOD.
You’re blessed when you follow his directions,
doing your best to find him.
That’s right—you don’t go off on your own;
you walk straight along the road he set.
You, GOD, prescribed the right way to live;
now you expect us to live it.
Oh, that my steps might be steady,
keeping to the course you set;
Then I’d never have any regrets
in comparing my life with your counsel.
I thank you for speaking straight from your heart;
I learn the pattern of your righteous ways.
I’m going to do what you tell me to do;
don’t ever walk off and leave me.
The Psalmist tells us that we are blessed when we are in order. We are blessed when we do God’s will. We are blessed when we ask direction. We are blessed when we receive clear understanding about where we are going and how we are to get there. But when we go without consulting God, do without asking God, then ask God to make the thing successful, we need to understand that God don’t bless mess!
So often we misunderstand what God’s desire is for our lives. We pray for things, stuff, and items. Satan understands that in the midst of confusion there is mess. And I stopped by to tell somebody, God may bless you in a mess, but He will not bless mess! You know, those things we pray for in a confused state…those things we ask for that are out of the will of God… Lord let me win the lottery….Lord give me a husband….Lord make my enemies hurt…..Lord make her love me….Lord make my kids good….these things are not of God……
When we are in a mess and we ask God to ordain our mess…. You know wanting God to cause peace in a household where you ain’t supposed to be….make the job go well where He is trying to move you from….make the situation easier where He is trying to break you out of…. A prime example of How God reacts to our messes we want blessed is if we read about the crazy plan of Nimrod and the tower of Babel …
Genesis 11:1-9
1 At first everyone spoke the same language, 2 but after some of them moved from the east [a] and settled in Babylonia, [b] 3-4 they said: Let’s build a city with a tower that reaches to the sky! We’ll use hard bricks and tar instead of stone and mortar. We’ll become famous, and we won’t be scattered all over the world. 5 But when the LORD came down to look at the city and the tower, 6 he said: These people are working together because they all speak the same language. This is just the beginning. Soon they will be able to do anything they want. 7 Come on! Let’s go down and confuse them by making them speak different languages--then they won’t be able to understand each other. 8-9 So the people had to stop building the city, because the LORD confused their language and scattered them all over the earth. That’s how the city of Babel [c] got its name.
Wow…. In the midst of their mess…God destroyed! Made it so that the mess got messier! Have you ever found yourself in a situation, where it seemed like the more you tried to fix it, the more you prayed about it to be fixed, the worse it got? Well chances are, God has been attempting to get your attention and tell you this is a mess, I didn’t ordain it, order it, direct you to it, so I will not help you succeed in it! His goal is to move you out of it!
And though God is not the author of confusion, as it is stated in I Cor 14:33).
And everything should be done in order 1 Cor 14:40 - When we decide we really don’t need God to put us in order, to address our out of order ways, to correct our orderless lives, God will let us feel His presence. God does not want us confusing the orderly things He has ordained, but this does not mean He will not ordain our confusion!
In fact the chosen text for the day let’s us know that there are consequences to our actions when we do not allow God to direct us… God Des Not Bless Mess!
Places where God did not bless the mess
In the Garden of Eden, when Adam and Eve went against the will and direction of God, they were not blessed to stay in the garden, they got kicked out
The children of Israel were blessed to get out of Egypt, but when they got it twisted and began ordering their own steps… God did not bless their mess and the wandered in the wilderness for almost 40 years.
Lot’s wife was blessed to leave the city with her life, but because she had to glance back, God didn’t bless her mess and she turned into a pile of seasoning.
But the same God blessed those who were in His will…who had a relationship with Him…who knew His thoughts because they had the same thoughts.
Look at the three Hebrew Boys….The could have allowed King Nebachanezar to have his way and worshiped the golden idol, but they refused to bow down to any other God, even if it would cost them their lives. We need to understand, that we have to put down our lives to be blessed by God. Put down who we think we are to please God. Put down what we think we should do in order to do what God has asked us to do. Here they faced the fires of the fiery furnace, and they simply said “Whatever you want me to do God” and they were blessed because they didn’t get caught up in the mess.
The same God that took out a world with the flood, blessed those who were in order….
The word of God says at Genesis 9:1 And God blessed Noah and his sons, and said to them, ’Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth’"
Look at the woman with the issue of blood…for years when she was out of line…out of order …her mess wasn’t blessed. She spent all her cash, looking here and there for her blessing, but finally she came to herself and she got up and sought out God. When we want to be blessed, we have to seek God because John 14:6 tells us He is the way the truth and the light! It makes sense to go toward the light – to seek out the truth, so you know the way to Go!
“I don’t know my purpose, I don’t know my goal….you are out of order….
Every man and woman has a work assigned to them by God. This becomes their purpose, their reason for being on the earth, their calling, their destiny. Abraham had an assignment for his life, as did Joseph. Moses was called to perform a specific life-task. David had a destiny. So did Daniel, Jeremiah, and all the prophets. Esther was raised up "for such a time as this." John the Baptist fulfilled a definite role, as did Peter and John. Paul had a purpose, a reason for being.
First, When the Lord gives us a work to do it will be bigger than ourselves. The size of a person’s heart may be judged by the size of their work. By size I do not mean numerical or financial strength. I mean this: is the work larger than the person working? Is it fulfilling a purpose far greater than the people involved?
Second, The work that God blesses is beyond our ability to do on our own. In other words, if I can do it all by myself, then I do not need the blessing of the Lord. I can simply call upon my natural talent, experience, and skill to do what needs to be done. Now, work done in this manner may or may not be successful, but irregardless, it is MY work; it is not the Lord’s work, and it does not enjoy the blessing of the Lord.
The third and final principle is this: the work that God blesses is originated by God Himself. This is one of the most important lessons we can learn. I spent many years creating and executing my own plans, asking the Lord to bless them. One day I understood that instead of always trying to get the Lord to bless what I wanted to do, it was much simpler to find out what the Lord wanted to bless, and simply do THAT. Instead of trying to get God to come down to my level and do what I wanted, it was far better to come onto the Lord’s ground and do what He wanted. Great synergy and blessing is released when we simply cooperate with what God has already purposed to do. Heaven backs us up with tremendous power and authority. Instead of trying to make something happen, I simply flow in a current that already exists. The Lord will deny no request that is in agreement with what He Himself has originated
Be encouraged. The Lord has a purpose for you, and a destiny for you to fulfill. But things will not always go the way you think they should. That is because the Lord calls you to something bigger than yourself, something beyond your ability, something you cannot originate or perpetuate without Him. It takes time. Noah walked with God for five hundred years and spent one hundred years building the ark. Abraham was one hundred years old before he finally saw God’s promise come true. Moses spent forty years in Egypt, then forty years in the desert, before God sent him to Pharaoh. Jesus prepared thirty years for an earthly ministry of three and a half years. Dear brother, dear sister: walk with God. Find Grace. Discover the One Thing. Focus on being, not doing. And when it IS time for you to do something you can be confident that your labor of love will be the work that God blesses – for God said “Your Labor is not in vain”--- but only when you labor in His will.
