Friday, August 15: 2Kings 15- Material blessing is not an indicator of God's blessing.

During this parade of kings, I met Azariah. His story got me thinking…

In the twenty-seventh year of Jeroboam king of Israel, Azariah son of Amaziah king of Judah began to reign. He … reigned in Jerusalem fifty-two years. … He did what was right in the eyes of the LORD, … The LORD afflicted the king with leprosy until the day he died, and he lived in a separate house. (1-5).

“God, I thought You blessed us when we were faithful?” I thought, “Here Azariah did what was right in your eyes yet he contracted leprosy and had to live in a separate house. Lord, that hardly seems fair.”

And so I thought about the ways of God which are often much different than I would do it. In Africa I see people who love the Lord but are impoverished. “Lord, this doesn’t seem fair.” At Adam’s Garden I meet people who love Jesus but are on the very low end of the economic scale. It doesn’t seem fair.

Material blessing is not an indicator of God’s blessing is the only conclusion I could come to. Material blessings and God’s blessings are not proportionate.

I have to chew on this more…

Lord, I thank You and I praise You for life. I am so blessed to have had my eyes opened by Your grace so that I can see You and know You and love You and serve You.

Help me, Lord, to stop looking at what I have and do not have. Instead, Lord, I bless You because I have You and You hold me. Thank You and praise You, through Jesus, I pray. Amen.