Blessings from God – Does God Play Favorites Among His Children?

Blessings from God are divvied up as He wills. No one can dispute or deny that fact. But if that’s the case, we can ask the question “Does God play favorites with His children?” If He did, would He still be considered a just God?

I’ve heard these questions consistently throughout my Christian life. Let me say from the beginning of this article so that no one reading this will remotely think that I’m attempting to answer these questions…I DON’T KNOW. Now that the formalities are out of the way, I will say that I have formed a few ideas on the subject of God having favorites within the Body of Christ.

Dispersing the Blessings of God

It’s undeniable that outwardly it sometimes appears that some Christians are the recipients of many more outward blessings than others. There are so many factors that play into what we receive from God that no one will ever be able to nail down a formula for receiving blessings from God. At most, we can only see an inkling into the mind of God with our puny little brains and reconcile a small portion of why some receive from God and some don’t.

[pullquote]It’s undeniable that outwardly it sometimes appears that some Christians are the recipients of many more outward blessings than others. [/pullquote]

For this article, I’ll use Malachi 3:10. God says that if we bring the whole tithe into the storehouse that He will open the windows of heaven and pour us out a blessing that there won’t be room enough to receive it. He even goes as far as telling us to prove Him in this. I’m far from being a linguist, but I have enough knowledge and understanding of the English language to know that the word blessing is perceived by most people as a positive thing and not a negative thing.

So from my understanding of Malachi 3:10, if we do something, God will do something on our behalf which will be considered good. But even though Malachi 3:10 speaks of God blessing us beyond measure, I still believe there are stipulations that have to be met in order to receive this “windows of heaven blessing” that God speaks of.

It would be insanity to believe that an adulterous, lying, cheating, stealing, drunkard of a Christian could tithe and expect to be overtaken with blessings from God. That would be confirming the person in his sin. I personally believe that obedience has a lot to do with how and why SOME Christians are extremely blessed by God and why SOME Christians aren’t.

Living Life By The Manual

What if two people purchased Nissan Pathfinder’s of the same make and the same model year, from the same car dealership on the same day. And what if both owners owned their vehicles for 10 years. Over the 10 year period, one owner followed the owner’s manual to a tee. This owner never missed a scheduled maintenance and did everything the manufacturer suggested on how to care for his vehicle. The other owner rarely serviced his vehicle. On the few occasions, he did take his Nissan in for service, he took it to a mechanic who wasn’t an authorized Nissan mechanic. Other than the hand full of times he took his vehicle in for service, he didn’t follow the instructions in his owner’s manual at all.

The one owner who maintained his vehicle as the manufacturer suggested never had any trouble out of his vehicle over the 10 years he owned it. The other owner had to suffer through breakdown after breakdown the whole time he owned his vehicle. From the illustration above, would you say that Nissan played favorites between the two owners? Absolutely not. One owner was obedient to the manufacturer’s instructions on how to care for their vehicle and one wasn’t. For the disobedient owner to think that Nissan played favorites between the two would be ludicrous. Likewise, I believe obedience to God and His Word goes a very long way in how the blessings of God are doled out in this life.

What is a Blessing?

Now we have the issue of figuring out exactly what the blessings of God consist of. I personally believe that the blessings of God consist of His magnified presence in our life which in turn leads to a clearer understanding of proper decisions to make, directions to take in life, and favorable influence here in the earth. This magnified presence of God leads to living a profitable, prosperous life in every way. But that’s a post for another day…

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