The Wake of Blessing

We are busy exploring the countryside around our new home. So, on Saturday we took off for a drive and ended up at a lovely lake. We walked down to the lake and as German taught the girls how to skip rocks on the water I sat on the bench and watched the sail boats in the distance. A motor boat sped by and, although it was a distance from the shore, the wake that hit the shore was impressive. Wave after wave crashed in. The poor swans were fighting to stay upright. Then, as suddenly as it hit it was gone. Somehow I knew that there was a lesson in this, but I had not yet encountered the main point.



That would come at church on Sunday.

The sermon was about Samson. It was about being consecrated to the Lord and that even in that consecration we sometimes make choices that are against God. The pastor pointed out that even when Samson was being disobedient (touching a dead carcass, marrying a Philistine woman, having a relationship with Delilah), God did not take away his strength which was the sign of his blessing. He pointed out that sometimes we continue to experience the blessings of God even when we are choosing to be disobedient.

Later German and I were discussing this concept. I remembered the boat from the day before. I said that sometimes the blessings are like the wake of the boat. The moment of obedience when the blessing was originally bestowed is like the moment the boat goes by. It is the moment of the strongest blessing. But the moment it is gone does not stop the affect. In the wake, waves of blessings continue to come. But at some point they ebb and then they stop. Likewise, if there is not continued obedience then at some point the clear outpouring of God in a person's life will ebb and then end.

I have seen that happen in my own life. I've seen it happen in the lives of others. Believing that God will continue to pour into my life in spite of my disobedient attitude, I lose sight of reality of God. Then there comes a moment when I act as if God should just be there. And he isn't. Samson experienced it.

He awoke from his sleep and thought, "I'll go out as before and shake myself free." But he did not know that the LORD had left him.
~Judges 16:20~

I find that as I examine myself and my thoughts and actions over the last few months in some ways this is my life. I have continued to experience the Lord's blessings in numerous ways. But it has not necessarily been because of my current obedience. It has been the wake of the past, continuing in spite of some horrible attitudes that I have allowed to intrude. I don't want to awake one day in the sight of danger and find, like Samson, that the wake of the blessing has passed and that I did not even know that God removed it. I want to stay in the center of obedience and experience the first hand movement of God in my life.

Father, forgive me when I allow attitudes that do not honour you to take over my life. Forgive me when I live as if I deserve the blessings bestowed from your hand rather than in a merciful reprieve from your hand. Thank you for the good things you send into my life, even (especially) as I do not deserve them. Help me to live in the consecration of setting my life apart for you on a daily basis and not misuse that blessing. Amen.

photo from www.morguefile.com (senaca77)