Deeper Reflection
IT’S EASY FOR B.L.E.S.S. OR ANY OTHER EVANGELISM
strategy or tool, to become a mere church programme. We sometimes
end up doing B.L.E.S.S. out of a spirit of compulsion: because our
leaders nag us to. Or worse, we may end up doing B.L.E.S.S. out of a
spirit of competition: we think we can earn brownie points before
God and pat ourselves on the back because we are more diligent in
evangelising than “that Christian brother or sister over there”. We forget
that salvation is from first to last a gift from the Lord and not a work
of man.The antidote to compulsion and competition is to return frequently
to the glorious truth that we ourselves have been BLESSED by God in
Christ (v.3). This is not a banal or basic truth; we can spend the rest
of our lives – and eternity – discovering its depths. The blessings are
abundant! God chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world
to be holy and blameless before Him (v.4). That means you and I were
chosen, before we had any conscious existence (and way before we
could respond to Him) to be God’s own special possession! Also, in
Christ we have redemption through His blood and the forgiveness of
our trespasses (v.7). What a wonder it is to remember that God has
forgiven us, and continues to forgive us, though we fail again and again.
The only rational response to God’s blessing is to join the Psalmist in
exuberant praise: bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me,
bless his holy name! (Psa 103:1)
