Heavenly blessings

https://odb.org/2024/07/11/heavenly-abundance

One of the privileges we have as believers is that Jesus opens up the heavens for heavenly blessings to flow down on us and our family. We are children of God through Christ Jesus, grafted into the family of God through the blood of the Lamb, and thus, we are now part of the Chosen Nation, the adopted spiritual Israel. As God is our God, we are His people. His benevolence and abundant grace and mercy are with us. It doesn’t matter that we were the worst of sinners before. Like in the case of Paul of Tarsus, he persecuted and hunted down believers of the Way before. Yet Jesus showed him immense patience so that Paul may be an example to those who may believe in Jesus and receive eternal life (1 Timothy 1:16).

When I looked back at my own life, I could see how my family used to struggle financially when I was growing up. Not that we didn’t have anything to eat, we had. But mostly, we just had enough as we were a single income family. Nowadays, especially in the city, it’s tough to survive with a sole breadwinner.

Even in university, there were times when I didn’t have a dime in my pocket, but fortunately, in the first year that I stayed in the residential college, we had 3 meals a day and a shared twin room on credit. At the end of the year, when we needed to pay, I had then received a JPA government loan that paid off all of my college expenses, including my faculty fees. If not, come to think of it now, I am not sure how my dad would have come up with that pile of money.

The great thing was that after paying off everything for the first 2 semesters, there were some surplus for my living expenses! Praise the Lord indeed for His goodness and mercy! The fact that my dad was a government servant helped, I guess, in us getting the JPA loan, but there was no guarantee, and the government was not obliged to provide us funding. This is a thing of the past as university students now have access to PTPTN loans, which is sort of guaranteed if you’re from a B40 household. But during my time, no funding means dropping out, even from public universities, and joining the workforce.

As believers, we are not immune from the rigours of life. We struggle and need to persevere through. But if we look at life in terms of 40 or 50 years, it is impossible not to see His heavenly blessings upon our lives. We may not be draped in luxury or travel in style, but most of us do not have issues making ends meet. As inflation sets in, life gets tougher. We need to adjust and adapt, like perhaps cooking more and eating out less. Eating more poultry and eggs than expensive red meat. Drinking plain water and less milk. The market provides a range of products, and we may need to go for the less pricey ones. Moderate living is better for our health, too!

Take some time today to reflect and thank God for His goodness and grace and mercy. For His heavenly blessings. For taking care of us and the educational and other needs of our children. God is good, all the time!