Why does blessing make me feel guilty?
by Roger Pook
Some good things happened to us today. First, a bill from the gas company showed that they actually owed us two months’ payment. (Our house insulation has really paid off!)Then we received a refund of insurance on the car we traded in a few weeks ago, and it was much, much more than we had calculated. Favour upon favour!
I was feeling really pleased – until a gentle voice asked me why I was so pleased. I had saved a lot of money – but why was I not just as pleased every day with the fact that I was fed, clothed, housed, warm and surrounded by good friends? Was I ungrateful? Worse still, was I “loving money”?
Was it actually wrong to feel pleased about getting money back? It was my own money which I had overpaid! Then I realised that the real pleasure came from a sense of justice. I had received justice, and God loves justice. I was simply reflecting the pleasure that God feels.
Don’t feel guilty when financial justice, or any good thing, happens to you! God is pleased; why should you not also be pleased? Only remember Psalm 62:10: “If riches increase, do not set your heart on them”.
Prayer: Loving Father, I choose to accept joyfully from Your hand all the good things that You send me. Please forgive me for feeling guilty when good and righteous things happen. Help me to see it all from Your point of view, and to be joyful and thankful. Amen.
Roger Pook For 21 years Roger Pook and his wife Christine served in Central and Eastern Europe, based in Hungary at the Úr Rétje centre of Ellel Ministries. From there they travelled and ministered across the length and breadth of the former communist world. In 2018 Roger retired as Regional Director and they now live back in the UK, where Roger still serves on the Executive Leadership and as a trustee of The Christian Trust. They still travel for the Kingdom!
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