Holy Reflection & Devotional Living

Blessed Be Your Name
In the land that is plentiful
Where Your streams of abundance flow
Blessed be Your name

Blessed Be Your name
When I’m found in the desert place
Though I walk through the wilderness
Blessed Be Your name

Every blessing You pour out
I’ll turn back to praise
When the darkness closes in, Lord
Still I will say

Blessed be the name of the Lord
Blessed be Your name
Blessed be the name of the Lord
Blessed be Your glorious name

Blessed be Your name
When the sun’s shining down on me
When the world’s ‘all as it should be’
Blessed be Your name

Blessed be Your name
On the road marked with suffering
Though there’s pain in the offering
Blessed be Your name

~ Matt Redman, Blessed Be Your Name, 2002

How easily praise and thanksgiving roll from our lips when things are going well, our expectations are met, and our hopes are realized.  In those situations, are we praising God for who He is, or are we simply thanking Him because He finally had the good sense to realize our plans are best?  The answer will be revealed when “we’re on the road marked with suffering.”

[esvbible reference="James 1:2-4" header="on" format="link"]James 1:2-4[/esvbible]

[esvbible reference="1 Peter 1:6-9" header="on" format="link"]1 Peter 1:6-9[/esvbible]

Jer 31:31-33

Jer 32:40-41

There’s never a moment in all our lives, from the day we trusted Christ till the day we see Him, when God is not longing to bless us.  At every moment, in every circumstance, God is doing us good.  He never stops.  It gives Him too much pleasure.  God is not waiting to bless us after our troubles end.  He is blessing us right now, in and through those troubles.  At this exact moment, He is giving us what He thinks is good.

~ Larry Crabb, Shattered Dreams, pg 1

Also see new covenant promise.

It is easy to believe this when the “sun is shining down on me and the world is all as it should be.”  It’s also easy to believe and tell others the truth of this when they are the ones experiencing pain and heartache.  But do I believe it when I am the one in the midst of the storm?