Mercies in Disguise

"What if your blessings come through raindrops. What if your healing comes through tears. What if a thousand sleepless nights are what it takes to know you’re near. And what if trials of this life are your mercies in disguise." Unlike other posts, this post is not based on a scripture reference but on the lyrics to Laura Story's song, Blessings. The lyrics are so powerful, biblical, and personally meaningful that I was impressed to write about it. The song describes how we pray and ask God for blessings and His answer often comes to us in the form of trials. While blessings and trials are both the product of God's mercy, it's not so obvious to us how trials are actually the dispensation of God's mercy. So the song suggests that trials are God's mercy in disguise. You may wonder how this makes theological and biblical sense, especially since Jesus taught us in the Lord's Prayer to pray for blessings ("give us this day our daily bread") and to pray for deliverance from trials ("deliver us from the evil one"). However, this tension between blessing and trial is the praxis upon which God's plan of redemption is based: knowing the right way by experiencing the wrong way, redemption by non-example. In teaching, a non-example is an illustration of a wrong way in order to learn the right way. We know we need redemption because we are sinners (Romans 3:23-24). When you are a follower of Jesus, then your life becomes God's classroom. Trials are the lesson theory and blessings are the lesson application. It is through trials that you can best learn about God and how He works and it is through blessings that you then apply what you have learned about God by sharing the message of redemption with people through words and deeds. Thank you, Jesus, that you love me and want me to know you better.