Blessings Abused. Psalm 128:1, Malachi 2:2
Psalm 128:1 Blessed is every one who fears the LORD, Who walks in His ways.
Malachi 2:2 If you will not hear, And if you will not take it to heart, To give glory to My name,” Says the Lord of hosts, “I will send a curse upon you, And I will curse your blessings. Yes, I have cursed them already, Because you do not take it to heart.
Have you ever lost something or given something away only to realize just how much you needed it?
I remember when I bought my first riding mower, it was a return at Walmart and I got for half the original price. At first, I treated it with love, then after a year or two I drove it like I stole it. This resulted in it breaking down.
After the second time I had to push mow my lawn in the August heat, I realized just how blessed I was to have that riding mower.
When I moved to Arizona, I gave away all of my heavy coats. After all, I was going to be in one of the hottest climates in America, what would I need a coat for. That was in October of 1997.
In February of 1998, my company sent me to Denver for training, it was 10 degrees below zero when I got off the plane. My first stop after I got my rental car was Walmart where I purchase a goose down coat. I have never been so cold in all my life.
I had given away something that I needed and paid the price for that decision.
1. Failure to recognize a blessing. 2 Kings 5
A lot of times, we don’t recognize a blessing until we lose it. I have heard people say, “I didn’t know how blessed I was.”
We often have blessings in our life that we fail to recognize, like having a home, a bed to sleep in, food on the table, and good friends. Sadly, these blessings aren’t appreciated until they are lost.
Gehazi was a servant of Elisha. His position was a blessing. But one day, greed took hold in his heart. Elisha had healed a man named Naaman of leprosy but refused to take a gift from him as payment for his healing.
After they left, Gehazi decided if Elisha wouldn’t take the gift, he certainly would. He later returned to Naaman’s house and explained that Elisha had changed his mind and would take the gift after all.
How stupid do you have to be to think you can get away with something when you work for a prophet of God. The end result was Gehazi was found out, and he and his family received Naaman’s leprosy.
Gehazi failed to see how blessed he was in his position. Sin entered his heart and he not only lost his position with Elisha, he lost his health and the health of his family.
Always remember, our sins not only harm us, they harm our loved ones as well.
2. Failure to appreciate and value our blessings. 1 Samuel 9
My daddy let my little brother Jason drive his truck when he first started driving. Jason had no respect for that truck, he took it off roading into places a 4x4 shouldn’t go.
He beat that truck to pieces. Why, because it cost him nothing personally, he didn’t have to work for it, and he wasn’t responsible for its repair or upkeep. As a result, he did not respect its value and treated it as such.
Saul was a common man who was thrust into the limelight when he was chosen to be the first King of Israel. His only attributes for the job was his good looks and height, a head taller than everyone else.
He was anointed King of Israel while out looking for a donkey. Here was a man who went from nothing to King in an instant. As a result, he had no appreciation for the value of the blessing.
He abused his power, abused his people, became an ego maniac, and ultimately tried to usurp God’s authority. 1 Samuel 13
As a result, his blessings were removed. His kingdom which would have stood forever, was taken away. His disobedience cost him all that he had, even the life of his son.
Failure to appreciate and value the blessings we have can often lead to our abuse of those blessings, resulting in the loss of the blessing, and more.
3. No perceived consequences for risking the blessing. Acts 5
We often indulge in disobedience believing there will be no consequences. No one who is suffering from heart disease or diabetes would have said when they were young that their life health choices would have a negative outcome.
Overeating, smoking, drinking, using drugs, and promiscuity all have a price to pay. When we are young and blessed with health, we fail to see how our choices then will have a disastrous affect on our later life.
Disobedience often has its roots in selfishness. In Acts, chapter 5, we find a couple that sought recognition within the church (which they were blessed to be a part of), but selfishness turned what could have been a greater blessing into a curse.
At that time in the early life of the Church, funding for missionary work was hard to come by. Even the basic necessities were in scarce supply, as many in the Church lost their jobs because of their public profession of faith in Jesus.
As a result, many within the Church sold their possessions and gave the proceeds to the Apostles for distribution to those in need.
Ananias and his wife Sapphira were members of this early Church. I say members, because their conduct would indicate membership only, not salvation.
They wanted to look big in the eyes of the Church members, but their only concern was the appearance of greatness.
They sold a property and kept back some of the money for themselves. Which is fine, as Peter said, it was theirs to do with as they pleased.
The problem was, while they wanted to look good in the eyes of the Church, they were also greedy, so they told Peter that the money they gave was “all” of the proceeds from the sale.
They were blessed to be a part of the first Church. Their blessings would have continued and even multiplied if only they had been honest.
The result of their lying to the Holy Spirit was the loss of their lives. They didn’t believe that there would be any consequences for their little scheme, but it cost them everything.
I see people of all walks of life indulging in disobedience to the Lord, thinking they will get away with it, that their blessings will continue as always, only to learn the cold hard truth that God is not mocked. What soever a man sows, that shall he also reap.
4. Believing you deserve the blessing. James 1:17
In our society, there is the belief that “you deserve a break today,” it’s your money, you earned it so spend it the way you want, you deserve a good life. In fact, we have raised the most entitles generation this country has ever seen.
Everyone gets a trophy leads to the mindset of “I should be the CEO right out of college” or “I deserve all the blessings of society without contributing to it in any way.”
For the older generations, we believe that the blessings we have are the result of our hard work and ingenuity. We have lifted ourselves up by our own bootstraps. We believe that the blessings we enjoy are the result of our own effort.
However, for those of us who have trusted Jesus as Lord and Savior, we know that every blessing in this life comes from God. James said, “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father.”
If we are blessed with a good income, its because God gave us the talent or the drive to succeed. If we are blessed with good health, we know it’s a gift from God. We know that all that we have, all that we are, or ever shall be, is a gift from God.
Failure to acknowledge the source of our blessings can often lead to the loss of those blessings. Pride can blind us to what God is doing in our lives, humility leads to a grateful heart for all that God has given us.
5. Failure to take advantage of blessings. Numbers 14:26-33
How many times have you heard of a workaholic who dies from stress with 3 months of unused vacation time? The blessing was there for the taking, but he failed to take advantage of it.
Many things in life are based on a “use it or lose it” policy. In the case of the workaholic, he failed to use his vacation time as an opportunity to relax and unwind, so he lost his life.
I think the same applies to blessings. In the case of the Israelites, they failed to use the blessings and protection of God to enter the Promised Land.
When they heard the report of the 10 spies who feared the inhabitants of the Promised Land more than God, the people lamented that Moses had delivered them from the “good life” they had enjoyed in Egypt.
God’s anger at their rejection of His blessings resulted in Israel wandering in the desert for 40 years. None above the age of 20 would ever receive the blessings that God had for them in the Land of Promise (except Joshua and Caleb).
We often fail to trust God for the blessings He has in store for us. Many aged Saints look back on their lives with regret because they failed to step out on faith, which resulted in the loss of a blessing to them, and glory for God.
If God has blessed you with health, use it for His glory, if He has blessed you with wealth, use it to spread the Gospel. As the song says, “every blessing Your pour out, we turn back in praise.” Use the blessings you have been given for His glory.
6. Assumption that blessings will always be there. Jonah 4:6-8
When I was a younger man, my grandparents had always been in my life. Whenever I wanted to talk with them, I could always pick up the phone or make a visit.
When I got older and had a family of my own, my life became so hectic that I believed I didn’t have time in my busy schedule to make a phone call, much less a visit.
I always said, “I will visit them when I have time.” After they were gone, one of my greatest regrets was that I didn’t take advantage of spending more time with them when they were alive. How sad it is that we do not appreciate a blessing until it is gone.
In the book of Jonah, we see an example of a man that took his blessings for granted. God used this to teach him an important lesson about blessings and priorities
God caused a vine to grow in order to give shade to Jonah while he waited with glee to see if God would destroy the people of Nineveh. The next day the vine had withered because God sent a worm to destroy the vine.
He also sent a hot wind to further Jonah’s misery. Why, because Jonah had more pity for the loss of the plant than the potential loss of all the souls in Nineveh.
He needed to teach Jonah about priorities and the reality that blessings could be taken away as easily as they are given when our heart is not right with God.
7. Recognizing that blessings can be lost.
Loss of a loved one, loss of your job, loss of a home, loss of a relationship; these are all examples the loss of what we consider to be a blessings.
However, when we lose a blessing that we know is from God, there is always a reason. Living a life of disobedience to God is always a precursor to the loss of blessings.
God never removes a blessing from our lives (that He has given) without a reason. As it says in our focal passage, Malachiah 2:2, He will turn our blessings into cursing if we fail to hear Him keep His ways.
While there will always be hardships in the life of a believer, we can rest assured that there will always be blessings if we are faithful.
The key element to the restoration of our blessings is repentance and walking by faith.
When you realize you have lost something it forces you to identify the cause of the loss. If it is within your power, you must act to regain what you have lost.
Sometime the sin in our lives can remove a blessing forever. But when we repent and rededicate our lives to the Lord, He will bestow new blessings upon us.
Because of David’s sin with Bathsheba, he lost the privilege and blessing of building the first temple. However, after his repentance God gave him the blessing of writing the Psalms.
The first temple is long gone, but the Psalms are still blessing those who read them, even to this day.
No matter how you have failed God, no matter how many blessings you have lost, God stands with outstretched arms, ready to forgive and restore. His greatest desire is to bless His children.
Wont you come today and be blessed?
Let us pray.
