Attitudes That Deflect Blessings

It appears that all your friends are being blessed. You look on, expecting your blessings to arrive but they don’t. You are all doing the same things towards God. What could be the matter? Check to see if you have attitudes that deflect blessings. Do that before you start accusing God of being partial because we know that with God, there is no partiality.

This is particularly important because unlike acts, attitudes that deflect blessings live in our blind spots. Which is why they are particularly dangerous for Christians and all other good people. You do not commit murder and you do not tell lies or steal.

Fornication is not your problem and you have not committed abortion or other murders. As we observed in an earlier post, you keep all the commandments and so start to believe that God is okay with you. You do not clearly see the attitudes that deflect blessings because they are not as obvious.

In the following paragraphs, we shall examine a few of such attitudes. And if you find that you have one or two of these, you will see how to expunge them. In no time at all, you will begin to receive bountiful blessings.

God Is Waiting To Be Gracious

God is kind and the Bible makes it clear that He is waiting to be gracious to you. How cool is that! This is the creator of Heaven and of earth. And He is standing by, waiting on us, to show you and I favor. He is eager to bless us. And yet, the blessings delay or completely fail to arrive. What could the reason be?

First of all, we need to bear in mind that God is not forceful. Or as some are wont to say, God is not a terrorist. He will never force you to do anything at all, even if that is to obey Him. God created us with free will and wants us to exercise it to the fullest.

Therefore, He waits. He will not force-feed us with His blessings. Although His heart may be bleeding as we strive to solve our problems by ourselves, He waits. There may be troubles everywhere around us, He waits. He holds out His hand with our blessings in it, but He waits.

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Remember the parable of the prodigal son? The young man was suffering in a foreign land. His father waited, albeit with bated breath, for him to jettison his attitudes that deflect blessings. He loved his son a whole lot, but he waited. We don’t read anywhere in scripture that he went after his son. He waited.

And then the son came to his senses. His situation is described in this video.

To put it another way, the son identified and rid himself of the attitudes that deflect blessings. He headed home and found his father waiting and expectant. It was only then that he could bask in the blessings of his father.

Identify Attitudes That Deflect Blessings

Keep in mind, the blessings were there all the time. But he could only enjoy them after getting rid of his negative attitudes. Similarly, you can start basking in the blessings of your Heavenly Father. But you must identify and get rid of the attitudes that deflect blessings.

The first of the attitudes that deflect blessings is pride. Obvious as that might appear, many of us are guilty of pride. Even in the place of prayer, pride can rear its ugly head. The Pharisee was proud of his activities in the church and prayed accordingly. Jesus considered that to be one of the attitudes that deflect blessings. He compared this proud prayer with that of the tax collector, who was humble in prayer.

You probably don’t need me to tell you which of them went home with his blessings. The proud man, although he spent time in church, went home empty-handed. He had the foremost one of the attitudes that deflect blessings.

Failure to forgive others is another of those attitudes that deflect blessings. Jesus said it point-blank that if you fail to forgive others, God will not forgive you. You may say you have not sinned and are not in need of forgiveness. But the bible is clear that we have all sinned and come short of the glorious ideal of God.

An un-forgiven sinner is considered wicked. And God does not hear the prayers of the wicked. In that sense alone, an unforgiving spirit is one of the attitudes that deflect blessings. You could be spending hours in prayers but since God does not hear those prayers, your blessings do not arrive.

A Few More Of Attitudes That Deflect Blessings

We shall not attempt to produce an exhaustive list of attitudes that deflect blessings – an impossible task. That is the responsibility of the Holy Spirit. He will do that for you if you are willing. All the same, we continue with a few more of those attitudes that deflect blessings.

Anger comes up next. Someone once said that the only difference between anger and danger is the letter “D”. Coincidentally, it is also the only difference between evil and the devil. It helps them to remember that the devil brings evil just as danger lurks within your anger.

We share it because it might help you too. Pure and simple: anger leads to danger. Cain was angry with his brother Abel. The next thing you know, he is committing murder, doing away with his own brother. And as long as there is anger, God is unable to bless you since He knows you are so close to the danger of murder. Anger thus becomes one of the attitudes that deflect blessings.

Bitterness is another of those attitudes that deflect blessings. The bible says we should beware so that bitterness does not spring up in our hearts. The reason is not far to seek. It is one of the steps towards an inability to see God. If one is unable to see God, he cannot receive blessings from God.

Silence At The Wrong Time Deflects Blessings

A largely unknown one of the attitudes that deflect blessings is silence at the wrong time. Not only does God say we should cease to do evil, He wants us to do good. Additionally, God says, first, we must seek justice and secondly, we must rebuke the oppressor. Thirdly, we must defend the fatherless and finally, we must plead for the widow.

Unfortunately for those of us who do not wish to be political, that passage smacks of social justice. When we see the widow or the fatherless being oppressed, we must speak up to defend them. Failure to do that is one of the lesser-known attitudes that deflect blessings. You see, God cares about the entire world and unless you care for everyone right along with Him, He will not bless you.

This does not mean that we have to become flag-burning activists. Jesus, our Master, was not an activist but He found ways of speaking up. In the same way, we must find ways of speaking up in defense of the defenseless. It is only when you have done all the above that you receive an invitation from God, in the very next verse of scripture.

Get Rid Of Those Attitudes That Deflect Blessings

We see God here getting ready to bless you bountifully. First, he removes all the negatives above. God will help to remove all of your attitudes that deflect blessings. He invites you to come and reason with Him. Because it is the key to receiving a cancellation of all the foregoing attitudes that deflect blessings, we reproduce the entire invitation here.

“Come now, and let us reason together,” says the Lord. “Though your sins are like scarlet, They shall be as white as snow. Though they are red like crimson, they shall be as wool.” With that invitation, God is undertaking to personally forgive you and wipe off all your negatives. He will personally get rid of the attitudes that deflect blessings.

Finally, there is the need to humble ourselves. God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble.  We do not need God to be resisting us. There is enough trouble already, without that being added to it. In any case, if God is resisting you, where do you turn for blessings? Nowhere. But if you humble yourself, He gives you grace, pouring blessings all over you.

You can start enjoying God’s blessings from today. He is waiting to be gracious to you. All you need do is to rid yourself of attitudes that deflect blessings.

Maranatha!