“He lives to bless in time of need” (Samuel Medley, “I Know That My Redeemer Lives”). I love the ambiguity in this line. He lives so that He may bless us in our time of need. Or, He lives so that we may bless Him in our time of need. When we rely on the Lord in our time of need, of course it blesses our lives tremendously, but it also blesses the Savior Himself when we choose to put our trust in Him rather than leaning on our own understanding. In the Savior's eyes, there is no distinction between service and blessings. The benefactor is neither greater or lesser than the beneficiary - both the one being served and the one doing the serving are equal partakers in the blessings of service. When we truly love the serve in the Lord's way, we are not performing some quid pro quo favor that we can then cash in at some future date. We are blessed in the very moment that we are performing the act of service. God allowed us to be born into an imperfect world with an imperfect body full of weaknesses and He also gave to each of us the light of Christ and an instinctual inclination towards compassionate service because He wanted each of us to come to learn to turn toward the Lord in our time of need and to both accept the compassionate service of others and to have plenty of opportunities to exercise our own compassionate service towards others. I hope that we will never hesitate to bless our Savior in our times of need by giving Him the opportunity to fulfill His work and His glory to serve and to bless us, and that we will always seek to follow His example in blessing others.
