It’s the middle of April. Are you thankful for rain? Maybe you’re not, but listen to the Psalmist…

Thou hast put gladness in my heart, more than in the time that their corn and their wine increased

(Psalm 4:7)

When God is your everything, nothing else matters. When pleasing God is your primary ambition in life, no other pursuit has merit. When God’s blessings are all you want, God’s blessing will be all you need. God can shower the earth with blessings, but if a person only cares about worldly things, the blessings of God will be wasted on them. The Psalmist does not waste God’s blessings. They bring gladness to his heart more than what a great harvest does to a weary farmer. The difference between David and the farmer in question is this: The farmer praises the crops; David praises the Lord.

Rain is a blessing, but if we don’t prepare the soil (by tilling and planting seeds, etc), it’s just a bunch of water. It’s wasted on unprepared soil. Salvation is a blessing as well, but if we don’t prepare the soil (the soul of man—Luke 8), it’s just a bunch of blood. It’s wasted on unprepared soil. It’s not wasted from God’s perspective: Rain is a blessing He gives. Salvation is a blessing He gives. But it’s wasted from our perspective if we don’t prepare the soil to receive the blessings. God has done His part. We must do ours or His part will be wasted on us.

You can buy your wife flowers, give her chocolates, and write her a poem, but if she doesn’t love you, she will let the flowers wilt, throw the chocolates away, and never read the poem. The blessing of your love is wasted on her. It’s not a waste to you: You loved her enough to do those things for her. But if she doesn’t have a heart that wants to receive them, then she wastes them.

David understands that every blessing comes from God, and so He loves God even more than the blessing. His heart is prepared to receive the blessings, and thus he does not grumble or fret when the world gives him trouble. God has done his part. When David does his, the blessings of God sprout within him, bearing fruit in his life to the glory of the Lord.

What a lesson for us to learn: God has done His part; we must do ours not to waste it.

~Matthew