#Blessed

Within the past few weeks I've seen multiple friends post a link to an article titled "The One Thing Christians Should Stop Saying".  Naturally, that caught my attention.  I was expecting this one thing to be something like "I'm bored with my church" or "I need a spouse to be happy".  To my surprise, it was the phrase "I'm blessed".  Here's the original article, although the author admitted to editing out some controversial phrases that bothered me in the first place.  If you don't feel like reading it, this post probably won't make as much sense, but to summarize, the writer states that it is wrong to call ourselves blessed if we have wealth.  He also does not agree with calling anything monetary or materialistic, such as business success, a blessing.  On the surface of his article, it's really not all that offensive, although something about it just didn't sit well with me.  I proceeded to read through the comments section to see how he replied to any questions and came across a few of his comments that, quite frankly, are just not theologically sound.  Reading this article has, if anything, encouraged me to do my own research from the Bible, the source I trust above what anyone else says.  My point is not to argue against the writer of this article, but to share what I learned through this experience.  I wanted to learn more about why, how, who, and with what God blesses.  Here is what I found.

1.  Blessings can be tangible and intangible.

     Tangible blessings are just that, tangible.  Look around you.  Do you have a car to get you to work?  Are you able to pay for college?  Do you have a family?  These are tangible blessings.  In being grateful for these things, we must be very careful.  Though these may be things that God gives us to remind us of His love, they should never be the end goal.  God himself is the ultimate blessing, not simply the giver.  The Bible shows us in the story of Job that although he lost everything, he remained faithful to God, and "the Lord blessed the latter days of Job more than his beginning. And he had 14,000 sheep, 6,000 camels, 1,000 yoke of oxen, and 1,000 female donkeys" (Job 42:12).  Intangible blessings are described in the Bible in situations like Isaac and Jacob.  In Genesis 27, Isaac speaks a blessing over his son, Jacob (thinking it was actually Esau, Jacob's brother, but it was a blessing nonetheless).  This ritual was so sacred that it was reserved for the firstborn.  Speaking a blessing was a way of wishing God's favor on someone, or God's way of showing that He is pleased.  In Genesis 9, it says, "And God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them, "Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth."" Nowadays, we can intangibly bless someone by speaking an encouraging word to them or praying over them.

 

2.  The word "blessing" in the Bible has a few different connotations.

      In Matthew 5, Jesus preaches the often-quoted Sermon on the Mount.  He starts the entire sermon by using the word "blessed".  But you know what's funny?  When writing this account, both Matthew and Luke chose the Greek word makarios.  Makarios basically means "fortunate" or "happy" and was used to describe the blissful state of the gods in Greek literature.  The word we typically would have used would be eulogia, which was usually used when invoking God's blessing on someone or to bless God himself.  Basically Jesus was telling this crowd to feel lucky that they were poor, hungry, and mourning.  I can just imagine their reaction.  "What?  Thanks for the advice, Jesus, but that doesn't help me!"  We have the tendency to equate wealth, and only wealth, with blessing.  But that's not necessarily true.  God allows some people to experience extreme amounts of wealth, but I don't think that how "blessed" they are should in any way be compared to the person who is living in a tent downtown.  The writer of the aforementioned article argues that calling wealth or anything of monetary value a blessing is wrong because that means God is cursing those who don't have wealth.  While I do believe wealth can be God's way of blessing someone, that's not to say that His withholding wealth from someone else is His way of cursing them.  The two don't have to be mutually exclusive.  What Jesus is saying is that the true meaning of being blessed- fortunate, happy, lucky, whatever- is to know that in spite of all the things you're going through, you get Him.  

 

3.  God's blessings have a purpose

     There are instances in the Bible where God gave blessings because of someone's faithfulness.  In Deuteronomy 28 it says, “And if you faithfully obey the voice of the Lord your God, being careful to do all his commandments that I command you today, the Lord your God will set you high above all the nations of the earth.  And all these blessings shall come upon you and overtake you, if you obey the voice of the Lord your God."  It goes on to say in what ways the Lord would bless the people.  I think the argument a lot of people have here is, "So am I suffering because I'm not being faithful enough?"  That's not for me or anyone else to decide.  Again, blessing does not always equal wealth and success.  We think that if we don't have an exploding bank account, that God isn't blessing us enough.  God expects us to use WHATEVER He has given us for His glory.  Sure, for some people that may be a lot of money, and if that is your number one goal in life, no wonder He hasn't chosen to let you have it.  There are also instances where God gave blessings to show off  and remind us of HIS faithfulness.  Have you ever wondered how you were going to buy groceries for the month and a random check came in the mail?  That's what I'm talking about.  The whole process of delivering the Israelites out of Egypt was one full of doubt on the part of the people, but God remained faithful.  In Deuteronomy 15 it says, "You shall furnish him liberally out of your flock, out of your threshing floor, and out of your winepress. As the Lord your God has blessed you, you shall give to him.  You shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the Lord your God redeemed you; therefore I command you this today."  God has a purpose.  If you have been blessed with anything, be it money, a house, a family, or any abilities whatsoever, they are for the purpose of making Him more famous.  He commanded His people to remember where they came from and to use their blessings to bless others.  Anything He gives us should never really be about us.

 

There's so much more I could say, but this is getting pretty lengthy.  If you have any specific questions or comments I'd love to hear them and do my best to answer anything.  I'm obviously not an expert, but if there's any confusion on what I've said, I'll do my best to clear that up.  Again, I'd encourage you to read the original article and do your own research.  If anything, this has taught me to not just believe anything that claims to be written from a Christian perspective.  Thanks for reading and sticking with me!

Kristen