We receive blessings FAR beyond what our efforts would produce without the Hand of God upon us. Psalm 132:15, John 10:10, Matt 13:12, Matt 25:29, Genesis 31, 1st Samuel 17, Judges 13-16.
This leads to a very myopic point of view - we are so USED TO the Hand of God blessing us - FAR out of proportion to the actual efforts we have expended... We hardly even know what it is like to have to scrape and work HARD and persevere to achieve... We haven't learned the discipline to GRIND it out... We haven't trained ourselves to Persevere in a Long effort in the same direction when God isn't pouring out the blessing and multiplying our efforts.... We have not learned the actual disciplines that result in the intended result....
I reead this excerpt from an interview of John Cleese of Monty Python and it struck a nerve:
"Who was your greatest influence?
Peter Cook was the most impressive. He wrote some extraordinarily funny sketches, and the wonderful thing about it was that it was effortless. But the sad thing was when he finally began to lose it and not have that facility, he didn't know how to sit there and grind it out like the rest of us mortals have to do. That's the down side of Genius. When the going gets difficult, when it's not flowing the way it used to, they don't know how to work hard at it....."
Link: http://www.mensjournal.com/magazine/life-advice-from-john-cleese-20141127
This stuff just "Comes so naturally" - NOT because we are Genius, Superior, More Righteous OR because we work harder - but rather because of God's overflowing Goodness and Faithfulness toward us... The reality is that it's NOT "Coming Naturally" - it's coming as Blessing at the Hand of God.... Not because we worked for it or earned it...
But - like ungrateful kids - we EXPECT it... We DEMAND it.. and we act like we are OWED something when the Blessings of God don't just fall out of the sky.... We don't recognize and Discern that it's Grace and Mercy upon actions which are otherwise completely useless and even potentially destructive towards accomplishing the expected tasks. Rather, we treat God's blessing upon us as if it's our Legal Right... We start acting as if we somehow have a Claim to this as if OUR efforts have EARNED this which we have....
That's what makes time of "Tribulation" so difficult... The times where God "Hides His Face" from us... Times where the blessings just don't Flow forth - and we HAVE to WORK to get anywhere.. Times where no matter what we do - NOTHING produces without extreme, CORRECT effort.... When "The Earth becomes Iron and the Sky becomes Brass" so to speak Deut 28:23 and Lev 26:19 Times when we GET what we really EARN.... THESE are the times where we LEARN the Intentional Disciplines and Efforts which ACTUALLY produce vs those which Incidentally produce (AKA God's blessings which pour forth IN SPITE of the destructive, ineffective, and misdirected efforts we do...)
It's like assuming that a young boy with a rock actually killed Goliath or the Jawbone of an Ass was a useful weapon for killing all those Phillistines... NO - in neither of those circumstances were THOSE the actual mechanism - the ACTUAL mechanism was God fighting FOR David and FOR Samson.. Young David understood this with his profession "God will deliver the Phillistine into my hand" (1st Samuel 17:34-37)... the same profession Samson didn't understand - but only discovered once The Lord left him - and he NOW only had his natural strength and ability - he was easily overwhelmed because he had NO idea what to actually do.... All Samson had done in the past was to shake and dance about - God took care of the rest... Samson had no idea of how to ACTUALLY fight on his own....
I have gone through this - and these periods in my life have been the absolute most frustrating experiences I have ever dealt with. NOTHING yields without EXTREME effort... and everything you thought you thought you "Learned" about how to ACHIEVE results during the periods of "Blessing" turned out to be useless.. and without Continued, focused effort - everything dies on the vine.... and even THEN - most of your work amounts to NOTHING - because the habits and methods you used previously were not EFFECTIVE... It's only then - when you really pay attention - do you start to understand how much blessing and overflowing benefit you do receive at God's hand.... and only THEN do you start to be THANKFUL...
But - it's ALSO in these times of tribulation - when the "Incidental Blessings" evaporate - that you LEARN the proper disciplines... The PROPER and EFFECTIVE methods... The useful and intentional things which DO result in the intended outcomes.... The things that when you DO them during the times of God's blessing - become SO OVERABUNDANTLY FRUITFUL that you cannot contain the blessings.... God is no longer working IN SPITE of your best efforts - but YOU are NOW aligned with God in HIS efforts....
Thanks
This leads to a very myopic point of view - we are so USED TO the Hand of God blessing us - FAR out of proportion to the actual efforts we have expended... We hardly even know what it is like to have to scrape and work HARD and persevere to achieve... We haven't learned the discipline to GRIND it out... We haven't trained ourselves to Persevere in a Long effort in the same direction when God isn't pouring out the blessing and multiplying our efforts.... We have not learned the actual disciplines that result in the intended result....
I reead this excerpt from an interview of John Cleese of Monty Python and it struck a nerve:
"Who was your greatest influence?
Peter Cook was the most impressive. He wrote some extraordinarily funny sketches, and the wonderful thing about it was that it was effortless. But the sad thing was when he finally began to lose it and not have that facility, he didn't know how to sit there and grind it out like the rest of us mortals have to do. That's the down side of Genius. When the going gets difficult, when it's not flowing the way it used to, they don't know how to work hard at it....."
Link: http://www.mensjournal.com/magazine/life-advice-from-john-cleese-20141127
This stuff just "Comes so naturally" - NOT because we are Genius, Superior, More Righteous OR because we work harder - but rather because of God's overflowing Goodness and Faithfulness toward us... The reality is that it's NOT "Coming Naturally" - it's coming as Blessing at the Hand of God.... Not because we worked for it or earned it...
But - like ungrateful kids - we EXPECT it... We DEMAND it.. and we act like we are OWED something when the Blessings of God don't just fall out of the sky.... We don't recognize and Discern that it's Grace and Mercy upon actions which are otherwise completely useless and even potentially destructive towards accomplishing the expected tasks. Rather, we treat God's blessing upon us as if it's our Legal Right... We start acting as if we somehow have a Claim to this as if OUR efforts have EARNED this which we have....
That's what makes time of "Tribulation" so difficult... The times where God "Hides His Face" from us... Times where the blessings just don't Flow forth - and we HAVE to WORK to get anywhere.. Times where no matter what we do - NOTHING produces without extreme, CORRECT effort.... When "The Earth becomes Iron and the Sky becomes Brass" so to speak Deut 28:23 and Lev 26:19 Times when we GET what we really EARN.... THESE are the times where we LEARN the Intentional Disciplines and Efforts which ACTUALLY produce vs those which Incidentally produce (AKA God's blessings which pour forth IN SPITE of the destructive, ineffective, and misdirected efforts we do...)
It's like assuming that a young boy with a rock actually killed Goliath or the Jawbone of an Ass was a useful weapon for killing all those Phillistines... NO - in neither of those circumstances were THOSE the actual mechanism - the ACTUAL mechanism was God fighting FOR David and FOR Samson.. Young David understood this with his profession "God will deliver the Phillistine into my hand" (1st Samuel 17:34-37)... the same profession Samson didn't understand - but only discovered once The Lord left him - and he NOW only had his natural strength and ability - he was easily overwhelmed because he had NO idea what to actually do.... All Samson had done in the past was to shake and dance about - God took care of the rest... Samson had no idea of how to ACTUALLY fight on his own....
I have gone through this - and these periods in my life have been the absolute most frustrating experiences I have ever dealt with. NOTHING yields without EXTREME effort... and everything you thought you thought you "Learned" about how to ACHIEVE results during the periods of "Blessing" turned out to be useless.. and without Continued, focused effort - everything dies on the vine.... and even THEN - most of your work amounts to NOTHING - because the habits and methods you used previously were not EFFECTIVE... It's only then - when you really pay attention - do you start to understand how much blessing and overflowing benefit you do receive at God's hand.... and only THEN do you start to be THANKFUL...
But - it's ALSO in these times of tribulation - when the "Incidental Blessings" evaporate - that you LEARN the proper disciplines... The PROPER and EFFECTIVE methods... The useful and intentional things which DO result in the intended outcomes.... The things that when you DO them during the times of God's blessing - become SO OVERABUNDANTLY FRUITFUL that you cannot contain the blessings.... God is no longer working IN SPITE of your best efforts - but YOU are NOW aligned with God in HIS efforts....
Thanks