In my study of the Old Testament, I have been reviewing all of the labor and rituals that the Israelites had to observe in order to secure the Lord’s promised blessings. They had to build a holy place where the Lord could reside, they had to give the best of their flocks in offerings, and they even had to give up a portion of their people for a priest class. Also, everything had to be prepared according to a very specific design, and in the right order, with some rituals repeated a precise number of times.

In the end, the Israelites did secure the blessing of the Lord’s presence, and all others that followed. After all of their labor He accepted the house, and “a cloud covered the tent of the congregation, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle” (Exodus 40:34).

So, does that all mean that accessing God and His blessings is based upon making specific sacrifices and following a specific recipe? In my experience, not exactly.

I would say that I have clear instruction for what I need to do to invite God’s presence into my life generally, but not so much for specific blessings that I might want. This creates an interesting contradiction where I feel His presence, but often cannot achieve the transformation that I desire. Take for example my desire to treat my body as the temple of God that it really is, or my wish that I could better maintain my stamina for the works I feel He has called me to do, or my struggle to let go of the anger and bitterness that I hear Him asking me to lay on the altar.

I hear you Lord, but I don’t know the way.

Further complicating things is the fact that I believe most of God’s blessings are never guaranteed, at least in this life. He might bless me with a sudden passion for always doing the right, or He might consider it wise to let me struggle so that I become stronger. This same uncertainty applies on a larger scale, too. I believe that those who rely upon the Lord have more blessed lives on the whole, but that does not mean that any specific blessing is guaranteed for any specific individual. And we must not forget that in dark times, being a believer has actually meant being more persecuted and afflicted on the whole.

There is no formula that if you do X and Y, then you must receive Z.

Sometimes that is hard for me to accept, but at the same time I realize that if this wasn’t the case, then there wouldn’t be grace. If I knew exactly what levers I had to pull to get exactly what outcomes I wanted, then my path would be in my hands and not the Lord’s. There would be no room for Him to lead me into something I never considered before. There would be no falling to my knees overcome by gratitude when I receive a gift that I don’t feel worthy of.

When we do good, it only invites blessings. If they come, what they are, and how many of them is out of our hands. Each one that comes to us is an unpredictable miracle. Thus, all we should concern ourselves with is making ourselves into a better vessel, then leave it up to God to decide how to fill it.