Based on the blessings that many believers receive, they wonder if God is indeed all powerful and true to his promises. This is because they have not been as blessed in the way they wanted. Some are actually struggling and are barely surviving, in spite of the fact that Paul described God’s blessings as too wonderful when he said, “No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him” (1 Cor. 2:9). God is indeed faithful and true to his promises. The reason many are not as blessed is because they have limited the power of God to do wonders in what their eyes can see, their ears can hear and their mind can conceive. They refuse to go beyond what their senses can perceive. They would rather walk by sight and not by faith.
To illustrate this truth, we need to look at the initial response of Namaan, a Syrian commander who was seeking healing for his leprosy. Having been told that the God of Israel can heal him, he went to see the prophet Elisha. However, Elisha did not even bother to personally meet him but sent his servant to tell Namaan to go to the Jordan River and dip himself seven times. This enraged Namaan who said, “I thought that he would surely come out to me and stand and call on the name of the LORD his God, wave his hand over the spot and cure me of my leprosy” (2King 5:11). Namaan had a limited idea of the ways of God and his healing power. He thought that God followed a certain formula and was limited to it. He may have been informed of how God healed other people in the past and expected that God would follow the same process. But when he finally obeyed Elisha’s command, he was completely healed. He was overawed by such an eye-opening experience that he exclaimed, “Now I know that there is no God in all the world except in Israel” (2 King 5:15). Had Namaan persisted in what his eyes could see and his mind could understand, he would have not been healed at all.
For us not to limit what God can do, it is important to understand his words given through the prophet Isaiah. He said, “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways. As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts” (Isaiah 55:8-9). We cannot fully understand the ways of God. He does not follow any pattern and does things his way. His dealing with us is personal so that there are no two persons that will be blessed in exactly the same way. We will all be rewarded according to what we have done. To try to set a pattern is to limit what God can do. And because we do not allow him to move beyond the pattern that we have set, just like Namaan, many do not experience and see the wonderful blessings he has in store for us.
When King David was so overwhelmed by what the Lord had done in his life, he uttered, “Great is the Lord and most worthy of praise; His greatness no one can fathom” (Psalm 145:3). The works of the Lord are indeed beyond comprehension. No one can predict how the Lord will bless those who walk faithfully before him. However, there is one way to be assured of his blessings and that is to love him with all our hearts. This is the key to being blessed beyond comprehension, as emphasized in the verse, “No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him” and in Romans 8:28 when we are told that “in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.” Even in those situations where we seem to be at a disadvantage, God can turn it for our good in the end. The Story of Joseph is a good example. He suffered much as his own brothers sold him into Egypt but, in the end, Joseph concluded, “You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives” (Genesis 50:20).
Seeing how good the Lord is and how wonderful his works had been, the apostle Paul said, “Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable his judgments, and his paths beyond tracing out!” (Rom. 11:33) Yes, God does not have a pattern of blessing his people. No one can fully trace back how they had been blessed by the Lord. All we can do in the end is to utter “Glory to God for his wonderful blessings!” Amen.