Have you ever stopped to consider what a "blessing" actually is? A faithful man shall abound with blessings: but he that maketh haste to be rich shall not be innocent. Proverbs 28:20. All to often in our Christian world today people tend to think of a real blessing only in the sense of financial. How many times have we heard, "Oh the Lord blessed me with a little extra money." I'm not saying that blessings can't be monetary, but I would venture to guess the blessings the Lord really wants us to have are spiritual. Those things that help us or another person grow.
While in Belize I had a real burden for the teenagers there. Most of them had been in the school for many years. They were from all different religious backgrounds, Catholic, Seventh Day Adventist and so on. They had heard many different things throughout their life and really were a little confused. They were good kids and for the most part really wanted to do the right thing. I found out quickly they were just a little unsure of how to go about giving their lives to God.
I had one student in particular that I had a heavy burden for. I had a burden for them all but this one was different. I prayed consistently for him to give his life to the Lord. It seemed the more I prayed the more dead set against it he was. He would say, "Oh, don't waste your prayers on me Miss, I have no interest in being a Christian." It would break my heart knowing that God had this master plan for this young man and he just couldn't see it. For months I'd pray and we would talk to him about the Lord, but to no avail. Sometimes children get things in their head that make them think that they have done so much wrong God could never forgive them. If He did forgive them, they would have to go make up to everyone they had ever wronged and have their forgiveness also. Unfortunately, that's how this young man felt.
I kept trying to think of ways to let the teenagers know that God's forgiveness was all we needed. To take our sins to Jesus and ask Him to forgive us, for some reason it was almost as if that was too easy and they didn't really trust that was all it took. Then it dawned on me one evening, the song by Casting Crowns, East to West. The words are so profound in that song, God cast our sins as far as the East is to the West, forgiven and forgotten. I brought the words to that song to Sunday school on one Sunday morning and had the children read them out loud. Then we talked about what they really meant.
Honestly, I can't really remember the exact time frame but at some point after the young man asked me to pray that the Lord would give him a desire to give his life over to him. Of course, I immediately went home and Aunt Carol and I prayed for him. God is so very faithful, before leaving Belize 4 of my teenagers gave their heart to Christ. To this day, 3 years later, they are all still serving Him and very soon will be attending Bible Colleges in the United States.
The young man who didn't want me to pray for him because he had his own plans for his life, he wanted to be a pilot, will be attending college this fall and getting his degree in Missionary Aviation. To God be the glory!
I say all that to say this, blessings in the form of money will NEVER top spiritual blessings for me and shouldn't for any Christian! Now I'm not going to turn away any money the Lord gives me, but it's not what keeps me going. The fact that I can influence a young person to turn their life over to Christ will always be more of a motivation and blessing for me!
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