You get what He paid for

One of my favorite Vacation Bible School songs when I was growing up was this:

The foolish man built his house upon the sand,
The foolish man built his house upon the sand,
The foolish man built his house upon the sand,
And the rains came tumbling down.
Ohhhhh...
The rains came down as the floods came up.
The rains came down as the floods came up.
The rains came down as the floods came up,
And the foolish man's house went SPLAT!

The wise man built his house upon the rock,
The wise man built his house upon the rock,
The wise man built his house upon the rock,
And the rains came tumbling down.
Ohhhhhhh.....
The rains came down as the floods came up.
The rains came down as the floods came up.
The rains came down as the floods came up,
And the wise man's house stood FIRM.

So build your house on the Lord Jesus Christ,
Build your house on the Lord Jesus Christ,
So build your house on the Lord Jesus Christ,
And the blessings will come down.
Ohhhh....
The blessings come down as the prayers go up,
The blessings come down as the prayers go up,
The blessings come down as the prayers go up,
So build your house on the Lord Jesus Christ.

I loved the part when the foolish man's house goes splat and we got to clap our hands together! I had this song stuck in my head the other day, and it dawned on me, "Blessings don't always come down on me when my prayers go up, and I feel like I've built my house on the Lord Jesus Christ!" In fact, there are lots of people I know who seem to live Godly lives who have horrible things happen to them or to people they love.

How do we wrap our heads around the fact that we don't always get what we pray for?
And then I thought about the phrase, "You get what you pay for." And then I thought, "I didn't pay for any of my blessings, Jesus paid the price for me." So, you don't always get what you pray for, but you always get what He paid for.

As I scroll through my newsfeed, I see, "I am so blessed with...." It's almost always a post about family (husbands, kids, grandkids), health, or a post about something material (new car, new house, new boots, black Friday deals). I am blessed by these things too (except grandkids) and have written some of these same things! We should give God the glory when we can see him working in our lives! But as I read some of the posts about new babies, I can't help but think of Henry and how we were not blessed with a "happy, healthy delivery of our baby in October" which is what we prayed for over and over ever since we found out I was pregnant. My blessings didn't come down as my prayers went up. So, am I not blessed because Henry died? Did God not hear our fervent prayers?

God knew the desires of my heart, but we still did not get what we prayed for. However, we do get what God paid for with the sacrifice of his son. God knows what it's like to lose a son. And that son blessed me with eternal life and the opportunity to be with my son again one day in Heaven. There is no greater blessing than being saved from my sins, and that is the blessing I am most thankful for this Thanksgiving.