Are You Secretly Sabotaging God’s Blessings?

Proverbs 28:13-14 – “Whoever conceals his transgression will not prosper, but he who confesses and forsakes them will obtain mercy. Blessed is the one who fears the Lord always, but whoever hardens his heart will fall into calamity.”

As I have read through Proverbs, I have noticed that there are a lot of Solomon’s saying that are advice for business and managing finances. These two verses refer to prospering and being blessed. All of us go through times where we really don’t feel like we are prospering and things are not going well financially. What about you? Do you feel like you are missing out of some of the blessings you read about in scripture?

I understand that it is up to God to choose to bless us or not but, remarkably, there are spiritual issues that automatically keep God’s blessings away from us.

A friend of mine use to say, ‘Always live your life in such a way that God can bless you, if He wants too.” I think that’s great advice and the way you do that is to apply the above verses. To be sure that we have not put up a spiritual barrier preventing God from blessing and prospering us, we must honestly evaluate our relationship with Him. Are there sins in our lives that we are hiding? Are there dark areas in your heart that you are so anxious to cling to that you have placed walls around them? We are the only ones who can answer those questions for ourselves.

My secret issues are just as hard to face as yours are but if we want to prosper and receive God’s blessings in our lives, we have to ask God for the courage to deal with them.

Notice that the above two verses are actually written as promises. God promises that if you hid your transgressions, you WILL NOT PROSPER; (certainly not like He wants to prosper you.) But if you confess and forsake your sin you WILL OBTAIN MERCY. (It’s guaranteed!)

If you fear the Lord always, YOU WILL BE BLESSED, (It’s a promise!) But look at what will happen if you harden your heart…YOU WILL FALL INTO CALAMITY.

I don’t know about you, but life is tough enough without my hard-heartedness making it worse. Dealing with hidden sin can be painful and humbling, but gaining freedom from them opens the door for God to bring blessings and prosperity into our lives, if that’s what’s best for us. Keeping those sins brings unacceptable consequences, at least that’s the way I see it.

“Always live your life in such a way so that God can bless you if He wants too.”