Recently, I was very much saddened when talking with a sister-in-christ, she shares from her heart, "I don't think I'm good enough to be blessed by God."
I am also partly angry (not with my sister-in-christ, but with Satan) because it is in operation from half-truths, and it keeps His people from feeling His joy.
The truth in that sentence is that no one is good enough to deserve God and to deserve Jesus.
"There is no one righteous, not even one;
there is no one who understands,
no one who seeks God." (Rom 3:10-11)
But that's us, our fallibles from our human strengths. We will try, and we will fail. Even as we strive, our being longs to do the opposite of His will and to sin. And in our inheritance from Adam, we are all cursed because of our sin and all cursed and condemned.
But that is not our God of Love. Even as we struggle and fail, He reaches out to us and wants to save us. We are righteous, not because of what we do or not do, we are righteous because of His Son on the cross. He died, so that all our sin and evil, of all that we've done or not done, whether in the past, present or future, has been atoned for. And He also rose bodily, to show us the new Hope of what the Father had destined for His Sons and Daughters. We simply place our faith in His Son that we have become God's Sons and Daughters because of what Jesus had done for us.
And because of what He has done, we inherit His promises:
"God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose. For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified." (Rom 8:28-30)
He has also said:
""My son, do not make light of the Lord's discipline, and do not lose heart when he rebukes you, because the Lord disciplines those he loves, and he punishes everyone he accepts as a son."Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as sons." God disciplines us for our good, that we may share in his holiness. No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it." (Hebrews 12:5-7; 10-11)
His will is to bless those who are His Sons and Daughters, and though sometimes life may not turn out the way we will and want, that's not to say that He does not will to bless us. Perhaps He wills to bless us through these tribulations? In ways we do not yet know or can imagine?
So:
"Glorify the LORD with me; let us exalt his name together.
I sought the LORD, and he answered me; he delivered me from all my fears.
Those who look to him are radiant; their faces are never covered with shame.
This poor man called, and the LORD heard him; he saved him out of all his troubles.
The angel of the LORD encamps around those who fear him, and he delivers them.
Taste and see that the LORD is good; blessed is the man who takes refuge in him." (Ps 34:3-8)
