How does God Bless You?

Wow. It’s interesting that you posted this because I have been thinking similar thoughts for a while now. I read the scriptures and hymns that promise that God will sustain and bless the faithful. The BofM uses that “prospereth” word. And I honestly can’t deny that I see that hand of the Lord woven in my life. But sometimes I wonder about the blessings of the Lord and wonder when you are doing all the Lord has asked to the best of ones ability and the promised blessings don’t seem to come. Is God truly bound? Or are all the blessings of the Lord given according to his will and pleasure? Or is it a blessing that hardships and death and torment comes to us? OR….is it an issue of faith?

I kinda had to laugh with your lion description of being happy while the lions rip you to peices because sometimes the promises said at church feel just that flimsy. Other times I have experienced the truth of the scriptures where my burdens seemed lite and easy to me even though they didn’t go away.

Trying to understand the balance of living in the conditions of fallen earth life and learning the refining lessons of how to do that and then how the blessings and prosperings of the Lord and all the obedience required is sometimes confusing and difficult for me……especially when the suffering has been long and relentless and I seem to be far past the fourth watch.

I realize with much of my faith…the motivating factor to be obedient is to get something.

It’s hard not to seek after the blessings when it seems the Lord is telling us to and inviting us to and explaining that if we don’t seek them or see them we aren’t demonstrating faith. I mean, it would seem these blessings are the evidence…..or God’s way of showing us that He is there and that he keeps His word. I think we need the blessings so that we can learn to trust and to expand our reasons for exercizing faith in the first place. Perhaps there is the fear of selfishness or self interest here. I would think that gratitude and humility would be the antidote for that. Perhaps charity too.

I realize with much of my faith…the motivating factor to be obedient is to get something.

Thanks for the thought-promoting topic, Heber! I’m going to be my diagonal self, and give my weird answer. At this point of my spiritual journey, I don’t see “God” as a separate entity. “He” is within. From that perspective, how could I really expect “Him” to give me anything, unless I get it myself? “I Am…God.”

I know many “scriptures” may be interpreted to say something different, but many easily indicate this. It works for me. And if I have this belief as a foundation, I really can’t expect anything…and that gives me much peace.

But that may be just me….

Fwiw, I have found that most of the recognition of blessings for me has occurred when I look back at my life and realize where I am compared to where I was previously. I believe in “enduring to the end” in a different way than most, probably, as I see it as the only way to see the height climbed – when you get to a vista and can look back on the beauty of your life. If I don’t endure the climb, I don’t get to see those vistas – and I don’t realize how blessed I’ve been.

Don’t get me wrong. Sometimes, I have experienced blessings quickly – even immediately. However, the most breathtaking blessings have been hidden by my myopia and only have come into view with some distance.

Heber, I had a powerful spiritual experience about your questions once when I left the church that you can read about in my intro. I will cut and paste the most important part here:

You see I had been doing all the right things in the church, (paying tithing, going to the temple, etc. etc) but none of the blessings seemed to be coming. In fact everything had gotten worse. My kids were in trouble and my husband did not get his raise, the car and washer broke down, and now he left the church. Where we all the blasted blessings they kept preaching about from the pulpit. Then I came across some anti-Mormon stuff from the Tanners that quoted out of church history and Journal of Discourses. For the first time I thought that the church might be false.

This 7th day adventist pastor handed me a little book called “The 5 Day Plan to Know God.” As I was reading, it talked about how the Jews were waiting for their Messiah to come save them from all their trials. When he came and told them he came to save them from their sins not their problems they were ticked off. A light bulb went off in me and I realized I was like those early Jews waiting for God to save me from all my problems. Suddenly I realized I had been living the gospel for the wrong reasons. I knew immediately that the only thing I should be concerned about is being saved from my sins and that is why Jesus died for me.

With this paradigm change, I no longer live the commandments to get blessings, but to see how it is helping me overcome my sins and become more Christlike. I have had to do the same thing in regards to my husband and kids. If I do nice things for them in order for them to do things for me, I am usually disappointed. But, if I simply do them with no forethought of ‘whats in it for me,’ I am often pleasantly surprised.

With this paradigm change, I no longer live the commandments to get blessings, but to see how it is helping me overcome my sins and become more Christlike. I have had to do the same thing in regards to my husband and kids. If I do nice things for them in order for them to do things for me, I am usually disappointed. But, if I simply do them with no forethought of ‘whats in it for me,’ I am often pleasantly surprised.

LOVE this. The grand plan is to lose ourselves. Charity vs selfishness. Commandments are not means by which we can bind god, but tools to become better.

It gives new and instant meaning to all answered and unanswered prayers, all received and unreceived blessings.

I feel that God has literally blessed us with everything we could ever want. We just don’t seek it, or we don’t see it, or we sabotage ourselves due to a lack of emotional health. It’s all there! Waiting for us. Maybe we don’t really want it. Or we don’t want to let go of our “baggage”.

I like this thought, Swim.

I think my expectations should be based at a greater level than just specific expecations on this or that. I think I should have expectations on the long-term and eternal vision of my potential, not on today’s mortal circumstances. I guess what I mean is that instead of expecting blessings the way I want them, I should have faith that God is concerned with my soul and so will sometimes provide temporal blessings to teach me certain lessons, and will sometimes not interfere with laws of nature because other blessings can come from allowing me to deal with my own circumstances.

In this way, it is just as you said, Swim. The blessings are always there for us if we are tuned in to know how to best read them. Some may call that just explaining things away…but explaining everything away can really sabotage the real blessings that are waiting for me that are real.

I like to believe my mortal experience will have real tests, real blessings, and real bitter and sweet opposites to experience.