Most Richly Blessed

Most Richly Blessed
Sometimes I wonder when things go wrong,
Has God forsaken and left me alone?
Then I remember through trials and distress,
He’s always with me,
I’m most richly blessed.

I asked God for strength,
that I might achieve;
I was made weak, that I might learn to humbly obey.

I asked for health,
that I might do greater things;
I was given infirmity, that I might do better things.

I asked for riches,
that I might be happy;
I was given poverty, that I might be wise.

I asked for power,
that I might have the praise of men;
I was given weakness, that I might feel the need of God.

I asked for all things,
that I might enjoy life;
I was given life, that I might enjoy all things.

I got nothing that I asked for,
But everything I had hoped for,
And almost despite myself,
My unspoken prayers were answered.

He’s always with me
I am, among all men, most richly, blessed.
~Unknown


Last Sunday, we had a guest speaker at church. She is a missionary in Michigan that pastors churches/disciples people who are/were Muslim. She is a white girl from Idaho, who's had her share of difficulties while growing up. Besides being hearing-impaired, she struggled with relational/family issues, and I'm sure other things (like we all have...). God has radically changed her life, and has given her a heart and passion for the lost.

She spoke on love. Loving God, which in turn turns to loving people. Love. A basic concept, right? Sure, but if you're anything like me, it's a concept that seems so basic that it gets overlooked.

Matthew 22:37-39 (NIV)
37 "Jesus replied: ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.'"

Of course, I've heard that verse, and the next one, before...lots. If you've been to a wedding lately, you've heard parts of 1 Corinthians 13. Ah...so romantic. Of course, it's NOT only a chapter about the love in a marriage. Yes, again, I know that. But that's what I've always related it to. The middle section, where it talks of what love is/isn't, really spoke to me on how I relate with people. Especially in my job as a credit union teller. Of course, if someone's irritating me I still treat them like a princess (or prince)...thank you, years in customer service and as a social worker...but if I'm not loving them in my heart, I'm missing it. God, help me!

1 Corinthians 13 (ESV) (my emphasis added)
If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.

Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways. For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.

So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.

So, again, I know this is "basic" stuff, and maybe I'm the only one who hasn't totally grasped the concept of God's rich/deep/boundless/unconditional love for me and for others, as well as my love for God and others. But, I'm pretty sure it's a lesson that this world as a whole would benefit from reviewing.