Gordon MacDonald - The Life God Blesses: Weathering the Storms of Life That Threaten the Soul

Books by Gordon MacDonald from Thomas Nelson Publishers

Christ Followers in the Real World The Life God Blesses Ordering Your Private World Rebuilding Your Broken World Renewing Your Spiritual Passion When Men Think Private Thoughts

Copyright 1994, 1997 by Gordon MacDonald

All rights reserved. Written permission must be secured from the publisher to use or reproduce any part of this book, except for brief quotations in critical reviews or articles.

Published in Nashville, Tennessee, by Thomas Nelson, Inc.

The Bible version used in this publication is THE NEW KING JAMES VERSION. Copyright 1979, 1980, 1982, Thomas Nelson, Inc., Publishers.

Scripture quotations noted NASB are from the NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE, Copyright The Lockman Foundation 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977. Used by permission.

Scripture quotations noted PHILLIPS are from J. B. Phillips: THE NEW TESTAMENT IN MODERN ENGLISH, Revised Edition. J. B. Phillips 1958, 1960, 1972. Used by permission of Macmillan Publishing Co., Inc.

Scripture quotations marked NIV are taken from the HOLY BIBLE: NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION, 1973, 1978, 1984 by the International Bible Society, used by permission of Zondervan Publishing House. All rights reserved.

ISBN 978-1-4185-2985-7 (eBook)

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

MacDonald, Gordon.

The life God blesses / Gordon MacDonald.

p. cm.(The Gordon MacDonald bestseller series)

Originally published: Nashville : T. Nelson, c1994.

Includes bibliographical references.

ISBN 0-7852-7160-0 (pbk.)

1. Christian life. I. Title. II. Series.

[BV4501.2.M2267 1997]

248.4dc21 97-6538
CIP

Printed in the United States of America.

11 12 04 03 02 01

IN
GRATITUDE

To Gail,
my wife, who walked through each page of this book, who encouraged me in its writing, and who lives fully the ideals set forth on every page. She is the one with the most beautiful soul.

To Victor Oliver,
my long-suffering publisher, who has been there from the first day I began to write books.

And to a number of the finest friends a man could have, who prayed me through this process and continually reminded me that they believed in me.

CONTENTS

Where could this book conceivably be going?

The tale of a good beginning and a catastrophic conclusion

When the soul is lightweight, anything can happen

The tough moments when the soul is tested are as sure as the rising of the sun

There are at least four kinds of circumstances in which God speaks

Spiritual superficiality and spiritual authenticity: know the difference

What do people of deep spirit look like?

What does it take to break free to a new kind of life?

Looking ahead: Where does the quest for blessing end?

Pointing the soul in the right direction

Going into the personal archives that record yesterday: what needs to be discarded

Teaching the soul about God

A soul with good weight produces performance that makes God smile

Conversing with God

How is one energized for the challenge of Christlike living?

You may not know God is blessing you until youre in up to your neck

The way a story ought to end

THE GOD OF the Bible blesses lives. Meaning that He stands willingin fact, desiresto pour out upon people gracious and uncommon gifts. Gifts that might include personal affirmation, intimate relationship, extraordinary challenges to destiny, and remarkable energies that surpass the limits of what we think of as normal human experience. These gifts that enlarge the human experience are things we often desire and seek. But perhaps not always at the correct source or for the right reasons.

God has been blessing lives since the great Beginning. He has done it in so many different ways, to so many different people, and at so many different times and places that one would be a fool to claim to be able to understand the whole process or to reduce it to a simple formula. Occasionally you enter the orbit of someone who likes to convey the impression of having the exclusive word on the subject of how and why God blesses a certain nation, a certain religious tradition, a certain theology, or a certain individual. But such exclusive words never stand the test of time. God will not suffer the parochial and self-aggrandizing descriptions and definitions of fools.

Not wanting to be such a fool, I have struggled with grave doubts that I had even a first word (let alone a last one) to offer on the subject of blessing and the issues behind it. Gods blessingand what it involvesis so vast, so humbling, so unpredictable a topic. Yet such a real one.

As I engaged the subject of the life God blesses in the earliest of my writing days, the obvious was quick to assert itself upon me: that the Bible is a compendiuma virtual ancient Whos Whoof lives God has blessed. Differentvery differentkinds of people: men and women, older and younger, calm and retiring or feisty and aggressive. People from varying generations over many centuries, distinct from one another to such a degree that they might not have gotten along very well had they shared the same playing field.

If you like using your imagination, select some obviously blessed people and match them together. For example, try pairing up Joshua the MacArthur-like general with Timothy the gentle, somewhat introverted pastor. Or tough and calculating Esther with reflective and responsive Mary, Jesus mother. How about rough-and-ready Simon Peter with the calm and brilliant Daniel? Think these folks would have done, said, or seen most things the same way? Think they would have easily gotten along? Theyre blessed people, mind you, but on the surface of things where personality, talent, and temperament are important matters, these are very, very different folks. There are some of them Id love to take to lunch; there are others I wouldnt want to have my phone number.

Where to begin when one inquires of the life God blesses? What does it mean to be blessed? And what is behind the act of blessing? And what must I do to invite the blessing of God?

Is there a sense in which any of us can say, I have a life God has blessed at one time or another? My first reaction is an emphatic yes.

For example, if blessing means, first of all, receiving the love of God, then I have a life God blesses. And if blessing means receiving the mercy and restorative grace of God, then I have a life God has blessed. If I have a life that has occasionally experienced unusual empowerment, a moment in which there is a lifting above normal limits of wisdom and strength, then I have a life God has blessed. And if, in a period of solitude, there has been an unforgettable sense of insight, an indescribable awareness of closeness with the divine, a sudden feeling of liberation to praise and worship, then I have a life God has blessed.

Furthermore, if there is ever a moment when a dream captures ones spirit, a dream to serve or add value to the lives of others, then I have a life God has blessed. Another thought: if a person has found himself in a relationship where there is a quality of human connection that is more enduring and satisfying than what is merely sexual, contractual, or emotional, then he or she has a life God has blessed.

But having said even this, I feel as if I have barely moved the topsoil away from an awesome thought, often underestimated, often taken for granted. The experience of being blessed!