PARENTHOOD
a divine stewardship

Blessing-Undeserved and Unexpected Results

What is blessing? Blessing is God working without any cause. Logically speaking, one penny should buy one penny's worth of goods. But sometimes, without spending a cent, God gives us ten thousand pennies' worth of goods. This means that what we have received is beyond reckoning....The result that we get which is beyond what our strength earns is the blessing. Putting it more strongly, we do not deserve any results because of our weaknesses and failures, but astoundingly we obtain something, and what we obtain is the blessing. If we look for God's blessing, He will give us unexpected results. In our service do we hope for God to give us great results? Many brothers and sisters only look for results that can be expected from themselves alone. Blessing means that the result is not in proportion to the cause.

If we only look for results based on what we are, if we only look for a little fruit, and if we do not hope for great results, we run the risk of losing God's blessing....We must say to the Lord, "Based on what we are, we should not obtain any results, but, Lord, for the sake of Your name, Your church, and Your way, we hope You will give something to us." Having faith in the work is believing and expecting God's blessing. In God's work, having faith means having the conviction that the result will not be in proportion to us....

At times it seems that God not only grants no blessing, but even deliberately withholds it. For God to withhold His blessing is more serious than for Him to not grant blessing. With our strength and gifts, we should have better results, but we do not obtain them. We labor through the night and should obtain certain results, but if God withholds His blessing, we will obtain less than we should. We labor for a long time but obtain no fruit. We are diligent, yet there are no results. This is what happens when God withholds His blessing....

Therefore, we should not look for results commensurate with our individual labor, but we should look for God's blessing....We must always look for God to do things beyond our expectations. We must ask God to give us the vision to see the meaning of blessing.
Watchman Nee, The Collected Works, Set Three, Vol. 56, pp. 435-446

APPLICATION

1. Why must we see that everything in God's work depends upon His blessing?

2. According to the fellowship of Watchman Nee in this article, "There are definite requirements for receiving the Lord's blessing;" what are some of the requirements we must meet for the Lord to give us His blessing?

3. What is the definition of the Lord's blessing and how can we cooperate with the Lord to become a vessel to receive His blessing?