On more than one occasion, the Lord has showed me examples of blessings he has prepared specifically for me whose preparations occupied a long time span, beginning far before I even thought to seek for them.
He truly knows all things past, present, and future, and has and will do everything necessary to honor all his promises, even when that takes actions that span much more than the limited time span of our lives. In more than one case, the blessings were prepared from before my birth. I marveled that God would do anything like that for me, and then I marveled again at my lack of faith in assuming that his goodness toward me was limited in any way by my inadequacy. [1]
What the Lord has to give us will always exceed what we have to give him, and the way we obtain the former is to give the latter. In three such visions, in different ways, I was shown elaborate places that were mine, even though I did not remember ever being there before. Each place exceeded the value of the places I had built up in my life to that point.
Whatever our individual blessings might be, all of us are blessed with access to the greatest blessing ever given, prepared from before the foundation of the world: the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ, whose example of godliness provides us with the unique demonstration of the Father whose emulation is eternal life, and whose sacrifice grants us forgiveness of our past sins as we turn to him with our whole heart. He was prepared before the creation of the world, and he came to live and die before any of us was born.
As you make choices each day, do not limit the benefits you imagine possible to what lies directly before your eyes. God is much greater than any of us. No matter of effort we are capable of will ever extend beyond his ability to make it worthwhile. Having poured my soul out in ways that stretch beyond anything I have yet to see in another, I can attest that this principle has proven true at least to the limits I have taken it. I have not been able to reach the end of his worthiness, and I don't have any reason to believe you will, either. Truly, great is his faithfulness.
As you turn to God with your whole heart, and continue walking in his ways, you will marvel at just what good things he has prepared for you long before you even thought to ask for them.
[1] When we love the Lord with our whole soul, no matter how meager we are, he delights to love us with his whole soul, and what he has to give us will always make every sacrifice we could ever make for him seem wholly insignificant in relative terms, no matter how complete it seems in absolute terms to us.
He truly knows all things past, present, and future, and has and will do everything necessary to honor all his promises, even when that takes actions that span much more than the limited time span of our lives. In more than one case, the blessings were prepared from before my birth. I marveled that God would do anything like that for me, and then I marveled again at my lack of faith in assuming that his goodness toward me was limited in any way by my inadequacy. [1]
What the Lord has to give us will always exceed what we have to give him, and the way we obtain the former is to give the latter. In three such visions, in different ways, I was shown elaborate places that were mine, even though I did not remember ever being there before. Each place exceeded the value of the places I had built up in my life to that point.
Whatever our individual blessings might be, all of us are blessed with access to the greatest blessing ever given, prepared from before the foundation of the world: the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ, whose example of godliness provides us with the unique demonstration of the Father whose emulation is eternal life, and whose sacrifice grants us forgiveness of our past sins as we turn to him with our whole heart. He was prepared before the creation of the world, and he came to live and die before any of us was born.
As you make choices each day, do not limit the benefits you imagine possible to what lies directly before your eyes. God is much greater than any of us. No matter of effort we are capable of will ever extend beyond his ability to make it worthwhile. Having poured my soul out in ways that stretch beyond anything I have yet to see in another, I can attest that this principle has proven true at least to the limits I have taken it. I have not been able to reach the end of his worthiness, and I don't have any reason to believe you will, either. Truly, great is his faithfulness.
As you turn to God with your whole heart, and continue walking in his ways, you will marvel at just what good things he has prepared for you long before you even thought to ask for them.
[1] When we love the Lord with our whole soul, no matter how meager we are, he delights to love us with his whole soul, and what he has to give us will always make every sacrifice we could ever make for him seem wholly insignificant in relative terms, no matter how complete it seems in absolute terms to us.