Feed Your Blessings

Sitting in my usual spot on the back porch I’m amazed as my stillness allows the presence of tiny winged creatures to buzz nearer to me than I am accustomed. These colorful fellows and subdued dames with long beaks and fragile frames dart in and out of my shaded sanctuary almost all day long in pursuit of nectar.

They never used to do this.

I never, ever saw them in my backyard or anywhere near the house.

It started a couple months ago when I did something I’d never done before.

I put out a hummingbird feeder, and in a matter of weeks, I began to see hummingbirds.

It struck me how simple it can be to make a change.

It didn’t take long hours of research, fasting, prayer or even a search on Google.

All I did was stop at the Tractor Supply store on a whim and helped the boys pick out a feeder and some sugar water crystals.

Suddenly I have within the scope of my vision, creatures I rarely ever saw previously.

Seeing a hummingbird isn’t a miracle, but it sort of feels like one.

Which makes me wonder if what many people consider miracles, aren’t just existing blessings they haven’t seen yet.

There have always been hummingbirds behind my house.

I just never fed them before.

What does it take to feed a blessing?

What have we missed out on, simply because we haven’t offered something ourselves?

Faithfulness.

I don’t take the feeder down. It is there, in the same place, every single day.

Blessings feed on faithfulness.

Stillness.

I didn’t hang the feeder near the swinging door, or on the rotating fan on the back porch. I didn’t hang it where people walk under it frequently or where other animals can reach it. It’s high up, away from the movement and process of ordinary life.

Blessings feed on stillness.

Patience.

The feeder waits for the birds. It doesn’t go running around the back yard hoping to find them, it sits patiently and quietly in one place, waiting. I’ve never even tried a different location, I just hung it on the one available hook at the back of the porch and trusted.

Blessings feed on patience.

Are you looking for a blessing? Isn’t everyone? We ALL want to be blessed. Not just financially, not just in things, but in peace, in health, in hope, and joy and contentment. Blessings like these can seem like fleeting little fragile creatures, unseen, though we’re pretty sure they exist somewhere.

They don’t have to be. What are you feeding your blessings? What are you offering? Are you running around looking for them, or are you being still, praying, waiting patiently, faithful to the Father, family, friendships and fellowship?

It is in that “miracle” of peace and confidence (typically amidst less than peaceful circumstances) that we often feel the most sure of our heavenly Father’s love and care over us. Didn’t He tell us to be still to find that (Ps. 46:10)? Our hope and security is not rooted in our ability to conquer what we crave, it’s in our patience.

“By your steadfastness and patient endurance you shall win the true life of your souls.” Luke 21:19 Amplified

Don’t just count your blessings, feed them. Don’t just know they are out there, don’t just admire them as others gather them in, offer something.

One of my favorite all time Scriptures: Psalm 1:1-3 (NASB)
“How blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked,
Nor stand in the path of sinners,
Nor sit in the seat of scoffers!
But his delight is in the law of the Lord,
And in His law he meditates day and night.
He will be like a tree firmly planted by streams of water,
Which yields its fruit in its season
And its leaf does not wither;
And in whatever he does, he prospers.”