Everybody likes to receive blessings and good things in life. The Bible says in James 1:17, “Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.” God loves all of us, and He delights to bless His children with all the good things.

Overwhelming Loving Kindness

God is love, and He pours out His love generously upon us. God chooses to bless us because of His overwhelming loving kindness. This characteristic of God has driven many of us to take the goodness of God for granted. Oftentimes, people consider God as their lucky charm that they want to use all the time to get all that they want. When in need of success, they run to God seeking His hand as if He is their good luck charm. Moreover, when life throws a curveball at them, they would wonder where God is in all of their circumstances.

When we analyze our lives, we cannot deny the fact that our prayer lives also reflect the same pattern largely. We all want God to intervene and fix all our problems or give us the blessing that we want.

Jesus Christ, our confidante

Philippians 4:6 says, “Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.” Instead of pulling God down to fulfill our to-do list, we must focus on transforming our prayer life before God. A balanced prayer life should include praise, thanksgiving, listening and sharing. A simple definition of the word prayer means ‘talking with God.’

Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior, considers us as His friends. He is a close friend with whom we can confide about all our life circumstances. If it is okay to pray in every situation, then certainly we can pray for God to change our circumstances. Nevertheless, it is important to keep in mind that God is more interested in changing us to be a reflection of Christ than He is with solving all of our problems.

In God we Trust

Jesus Christ is not our good luck charm but He is God who we can trust in all circumstances. I would like to share one of my very recent experiences. My younger son is involved in Junior Bible Quiz ministry. The state level competition took place recently. As a family, we have been praying to God for this competition and for our son to win the championship. Does it sound more like we were in a same boat, knocking on God’s doors for favor with the tournament? Half way through the quiz rounds, we felt the championship is slipping out of our hands. That when it stuck in me that I should stop focusing on twisting and turning God’s hands and start praising God and leaving the burden at the feet of God and rest in His loving care.

In what seemed like a hopeless situation, God showed us a ray of hope and His light. One quiz round made us pull ourselves together and fight back with all that we had. God blessed the efforts of the team, and we finished perfectly and unquestionably in the first place… as State Champions in the Ohio State Junior Bible Quiz Meet, for the fifth year in a row…! All glory belongs to God! He is indeed our close confidante and God over all of our circumstances.

I would like to encourage everyone to fix your eyes on Jesus and build a close relationship with Him. When we are closer to Him, He is more involved in our lives and more sensitive to our needs. Our prayers will perfectly align with His will and produce amazing miracles. Isaiah 65:24 says, “Before they call I will answer; while they are still speaking I will hear.” God will delight to fulfill the desires of our heart when we love Him and trust Him for who He is and not for what He does for us.

-RANJANI KARTHIK