Look For The Blessings In Your ‘Curses’

Word-Of-The-Day: ‘(7) <The Lord said to Jeremiah,> “But blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord, whose confidence is in him. (8) They will be like a tree planted by the water that sends out its roots by the stream. It does not fear when heat comes; its leaves are always green. It has no worries in a year of drought and never fails to bear fruit.”’ (Jeremiah 17:7-8)

We often find ourselves in situations that are not pleasant to be in. One of them is defrosting the freezer when it starts to ice up. Usually, about once every other month (or when I am reminded to do so), I will scrape and pick off the ice that builds up around the top of the freezer to ensure the door closes properly and seals, to keep the cold air in and the stuff in the freezer frozen. It usually involves a hair dryer and a spackling blade, with a bucket to toss the chipped-off ice into along with towels on the floor to sop up the water.

Eventually, about once every couple of years, the ice starts to get thicker on the lower shelves. We then perform the arduous task (after the frozen food is almost used up) to empty the freezer, and find space in our refrigerators’ freezer sections (both are relatively small) and fight to cram the remnants in with the current stuff residing in the smaller freezers. I will then unplug and move the freezer out into the garage for several hours and allow it to melt off all the ice.

Fortunately, it is a small upright freezer that is not too heavy or bulky. It is still a bit painful, despite its size, to do this, and although I’m certain it could that there may be better freezers out there that don’t ice up as much or could ‘melt’ more neatly – this is the freezer we have. It is something I don’t look forward to as it is both time-consuming and a little frustrating – not to mention the art of getting the freezer out into the garage to quickly defrost it, clean up the water it disperses, and putting it back into its space in the house.

Nevertheless, I am thankful that we have this freezer. It holds enough frozen items for us so we don’t have to make constant trips to buy meats or other frozen stuff every trip to the store. I am also thankful that each time we’ve had to do a ‘full defrost’ (about three times since we bought it, about ten years ago) that is small enough for me to move, and rugged enough to survive my manhandling it in and out of the garage.

One could look at the freezer and call it a ‘curse’ that there is so much ‘maintenance’ involved in it. Other appliances don’t involve so much maintenance; the fridges ‘self-defrost’, and the other appliances usually need a wipe-down after use and that’s all that goes into them. Taking the lint trap out of the dryer after every use and vacuuming out the exhaust duct about once a year is the second-most painful maintenance task, and that’s really not painful at all, either.

Jeremiah was given these two verses in contrast to Jeremiah 17:5-6, which curses those who trusts in man and not God, and will overlook the blessings God has given them.  The difference between thinking negatively (one is cursed), and thinking positively (one is blessed), is trust in our God.  If you think and focus on only the bad things that happen, you are not trusting in God, nor are looking at the blessings He has given you. 

The comparison of the two shows the ‘cursed’ being given a blessing and not knowing it (verse 6, ‘they will not know prosperity when it comes.’).  There is so much focus on the negative aspects of life, that the ‘cursed’ may take a blessing for granted.  For example, a person needing a car is given one – it’s a good-running car but its an older one, say a 1992 Oldsmobile Cutlass 4-door with some dents or rust. 

If the person is negative, they may say, ‘well this an old piece of junk’ and overlooks the fact that this will help them get back and forth to work, or to go get groceries without walking to the store. However, if one focuses on the positive aspects of life, they are ‘blessed’ that they are not having to walk in the rain to work, or having to carry groceries home after shopping. That person is thankful the car runs, can get them to where they are going, and sees the positive things the car can do for them.

The blessed praise the Lord for having any car, the cursed are ruffled over not having the ‘right’ car.  We can apply this to any situation; you have a freezer that needs defrosting, or your car gets a flat tire.  Praise the Lord you were provided by Him a freezer in the first place, praise the Lord that you have a car that could get a flat tire, and praise the Lord for the resources to overcome these situations!  Trust in the Lord; quit looking at the negative but look at the positive in every situation (like having bacon in the freezer for breakfast!).