Blessings Limit

When I was a kid, my folks would sometimes take the family to Lake Cuyamaca as a special outing.  We had many memorable experiences on the water, like me dropping the brand-new net overboard and watching it slowly float out of sight (and then seeing the expression on my dad's face!), my mom catching all the fish and laughing hysterically, and the time it was so freezing cold we left after an hour to warm up over breakfast in Julian.  Our chief goal as a family was to "catch our limit."  At Lake Cuyamaca, each person has a limit of five trout.  With five people in our family, we could catch 25 trout!  I don't know that we ever managed that number, but on one occasion we were very close (thanks to Mom - she was unstoppable that day!).

Tonight after dinner I read a passage from 1 Chronicles 26 and we have been nightly wading through lists of names and positions of service.  Every night the LORD has shown us new things as we read, even in the genealogies.  I read something I hadn't noticed before:  1 Chron. 26:4-6 says, "Moreover the sons of Obed-Edom were Shemaiah the firstborn, Jehozabad the second, Joah the third, Sacar the fourth, Nethanel the fifth, [5] Ammiel the sixth, Issachar the seventh, Peulthai the eighth; for God blessed him."  Obed-Edom didn't have the most kids of anyone in the Bible, but the passage clearly states he had these children because "God blessed him."  My dad hails from a family with eight kids.  Whether you have 18 kids or are without children altogether, God has blessed you in more ways than can be counted.  Obed-Edom was blessed by God, and giving him children was a way God expressed this in his life.

As I read this, my mind went suddenly to a common practice of many people today who are medically sterilized so they will no longer be able to make babies.  Now understand, I am not making a case against this practice or do I condemn it in any way.  If you know me at all, you know how my mind works in that I see a physical thing and consider the spiritual application.  For the sake of consideration, let's say God desires to bless me with eight kids and after three I decide I've had enough.  Would I be limiting the blessings of God?  Regardless, this will always remain a hypothetical question.  Now for the real question:  CAN I limit the blessings of God in my life?  I can say with certainty:  absolutely.

God desires to bless His people with wisdom, knowledge, forgiveness, victory, and peace through Jesus Christ.  I can choose to walk according to my own wisdom.  I can choose to refuse to forgive others and deny myself forgiveness from God.  I can choose to walk in sin and forfeit the victory which is my birthright as a child of God.  I can choose to allow worry and doubt to rule my decisions and reject the peace which God has offered me.  How sad it would be to receive three gifts from God when He has eight in store!  The truth is God has an infinite amount of temporal and eternal blessings already granted to all who walk this earth.

Let us decide today that we will not place a blessings limit on God.  God grants us blessings that we might glorify Him.  The more we receive the more capacity we have to give.  Let's receive the limit God would have for us!  No one limits out sitting on the couch.  If Jesus could use five loaves and two fish to feed over five thousand men, their wives, and children, He can use what little we possess - after it is handed over to Him - to do miraculous things for His praise, glory, and honor.  Psalm 37:4 says, "Delight yourself also in the Lord, and He shall give you the desires of your heart."  That is a promise and a blessing!