When we think of God’s blessings, our minds often conjure up happy relationships, being financially secure, enjoying vacations, or gaining favor with people in power. We might even tend to think of only those “it’s good to be alive” moments.
But God can often be blessing our lives in ways we don’t even notice, like when we’re dealing with a disappointment, an unexpected diagnosis, or a financial setback.
I’ve learned by now that some of God’s best gifts to us are the things He withholds. And some of our most precious blessings come in the form of suffering. We often don’t realize it immediately, but in hindsight, we find we have much to be grateful for.
So that you can live out God’s will for you and be thankful in all things (1 Thessalonians 5:18), here are eight ways God is blessing your life that might otherwise go unnoticed:
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1. He’s Allowing a Health Uncertainty
We tend to think of health and healing as God’s blessings. But God knows that sometimes we don’t truly cling to Him until we have a cancer scare, an impending surgery, or a health uncertainty we never imagined we’d have.
When I had to wait four weeks for a biopsy on a mysterious 5-cm mass in my body that an ultrasound reported as a “very high-risk category,” it catapulted my prayer life to another level. It opened my eyes to seize the day, made me instantly grateful for every blessing I have already been given, and helped me to became more aware of God’s presence and work in every detail of my life. I also experienced during that “blessing of uncertainty” precious calls from my 86-year-old father asking how I’m doing and letting me know he shared my prayer request with another one of his Bible study or prayer groups. Never having that health scare would have been a blessing. But what I experienced during that “blessing of uncertainty” was priceless, and I wouldn’t have exchanged it for anything.
Is something uncertain in your life right now regarding your health? If so, that’s a blessing from God, a nudge for you to lean in closer to Him and find in Him a new dependence or awareness of His presence.
2. He’s Withholding Something You Want
In the book of First Samuel, we read of Hannah, a barren woman who longed for a child. Year after year, she tried to wait on God’s timing until she finally got desperate and poured out her heart to God and promised Him if He gave her a child she’d give him back to the Lord all the days of his life.
Scripture tells us, “in due time, after Hannah had conceived, that she gave birth to a son…” (1 Samuel 1:20). But it wasn’t just any son. And it wasn’t at just any time. God gave her a son she named Samuel, who became Israel’s greatest prophet and priest, anointed the first two kings of Israel, and helped change the heart of a nation.
All those years, Hannah thought God was withholding a baby from her. God wasn’t saying “no,” He was really saying, “Wait, I have something far better for you than what you asked for.” Hannah just wanted to be a mom, but God wanted so much more for Hannah. Hannah wanted a baby that was all hers, but God wanted Hannah to be all His. Sometimes, God’s “no” isn’t really “no” after all. It’s “not yet.” Trust Him in the withholding because He may be waiting to bless your life with something far better than you have asked for.”
Timothy Keller once said, “God will only give you what you would have asked for if you knew everything He knows.”
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3. A Wound from a Friend
How can a relationship fallout be a blessing? There’s a reason Proverbs 27:6 tells us, “Faithful are the wounds of a friend, but deceitful are the kisses of an enemy.” If you have a friend who tells you what you don’t want to hear, but what you truly need to hear, in order to help you grow spiritually and emotionally, that is a blessing. If you have an upset or misunderstanding with a friend who wounded you, you have an opportunity to work that out with your friend and become even closer to one another. Every relationship goes through difficulties in order to be strengthened. Trust what God is doing and thank Him for the wound from a friend because it’s far better than a friend’s outright betrayal, abandonment, or insistence upon staying silent so that you never know what came between the two of you.
4. Financial Need
When we need to trust God to pay the tuition bill, make the mortgage payment, or just make ends meet, we receive the blessing of another layer of dependence on God and the beautiful experience and joy of seeing Him come through for us. What a joy it is to know that when we do what we can and are obedient with the money God entrusts to us, we can trust Him when He tells us to rest, and we can see firsthand how He provides more for us while we sleep than we can provide when we strive. Psalm 127:2 tells us: “It is vain for you to rise up early, to retire late, to eat the bread of painful labors: For He gives to His beloved even in his sleep.”
If you are stretched financially and praying for the blessings of abundance, start looking at the abundance that comes from being dependent on God for everything you have. It just may be that He has you right where He wants you—up close to His heart and looking to Him for your daily sustenance.
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5. The Air Pumping Through Your Lungs
Ever have one of those days when you question why you’re here? When you’re angry at your circumstances, someone else, or even God? Even if it looks like nothing good is going on, the fact that you still have air in your lungs and blood pumping through your heart is reason enough to be grateful and to consider life a blessing. What’s the alternative? You not being here at all. God is the Giver and Sustainer of life, and He still has you here for a reason. That, in itself, is a blessing. So, when you rise each morning and get to see another day, don’t let that blessing slip by you unnoticed.
6. A Smile or Kind Word from a Stranger
We live in a world that is becoming increasingly isolated. People are beginning to prefer screens over faces and the convenience of chatting with AI rather than with humans. When you see a younger or older gentleman holding a door open for you or someone else, or you hear a kind word spoken or just see that someone made eye contact and smile, that is a blessing. It’s a gentle reminder that we are all God’s creation, made in His image with the longing for connection with one another. Whether someone has a relationship with God or not, they are still stamped with His image. And when you see this goodness of God seeping through in simple, ordinary acts of kindness or courtesy, thank God for it.
Rather than wait until someone else acts kindly, which can be seen as a blessing in your life, be a blessing to someone else by taking the initiative to smile, hold open a door, or speak a kind word to someone. You never know when someone might really need that random act of kindness in the moment, and how much of a noticed blessing it will be to them.
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7. A Closed Door
We love opportunities and want open doors continually, don’t we? But many times, God is the only One who truly knows where those doors lead, where we’ll be in another six months or five years down the road if we walked through that “wonderfully exciting open door.” So, He closes them sometimes for our own protection. To spare us from what we might never see.
If you’re praying for an open door and God closes the one you thought would be perfect for you, trust His wisdom and consider it a blessing. Psalm 84:11 promises: “No good thing will he withhold from those who uprightly.” And James 1:17 tells us, “Every good thing given and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shifting shadow.”
Consider that closed door a blessing, even if you can’t see any logical reason why it closed. If you trust God, honor Him with your life and decisions, and thank Him for what He spared you of and for the door He does plan to open when the timing and opportunity are right for you.
RELATED PODCAST: When a door closes, God has a plan. Meditate on Jeremiah 29:11.
8. The Difficulty You Can’t Understand Right Now
Why would a difficulty that we can’t understand be a blessing? If you truly believe God is good, wise, all-knowing, and all-powerful, then that difficulty He is allowing in your life is really a blessing because He’s using it to make you more like His Son. When we surrender and thank Him in all things (1 Thessalonians 5:18), we can be assured that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose” (Romans 8:28). And don’t forget how God is working all things for your good. The first part of verse 29 tells us: “For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son…” That difficulty you can’t understand is making you more like Jesus, and that is the greatest unnoticed treasure in any trial.
For more on recognizing God’s blessings and remaining thankful, see Cindi’s book, God’s Whispers to a Woman’s Heart.
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Originally published Tuesday, 27 February 2024.
