Have you ever wondered what it means to be blessed? We hear it all the time. “We are a blessed people”. I mean we even say it all the time to ourselves. “Too blessed to be stressed”. But what does it really mean to be blessed?
This is a question that I asked myself as I was reading my bible the other day and came upon the first time the word “bless” is mentioned in the bible. Upon examining the verses I found that in order to be blessed, there first was a commandment that needed to be followed.
Now the Lord had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father’s house, unto a land that I will shew thee:And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing:And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.
Genesis 12:1-3
In order for Abram to be blessed by God, he first had to leave his country, his family, his father’s house and go to the land that God picked for him. After realizing this formula for being blessed, I did some research to see if this was a common theme to being blessed.
Genesis 17:15-16
And God said unto Abraham, As for Sarai thy wife, thou shalt not call her name Sarai, but Sarah shall her name be. And I will bless her, and give thee a son also of her: yea, I will bless her, and she shall be a mother of nations; kings of people shall be of her.
Command: Your wife’s name is no longer Sarai but Sarah
Blessing: She will be a mother of nations. Kings of people shall be of her.
Genesis 22:2, Genesis 22:17
And he said, Take now thy son, thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest, and get thee into the land of Moriah; and offer him there for a burnt offering upon one of the mountains which I will tell thee of.
That in blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of the heaven, and as the sand which is upon the sea shore; and thy seed shall possess the gate of his enemies;
Command: Take Isaac and offer him as a burnt offering
Blessing: I will multiply your seed as the stars of the heaven and the sand on the seashore.
Exodus 20:24
An altar of earth thou shalt make unto me, and shalt sacrifice thereon thy burnt offerings, and thy peace offerings, thy sheep, and thine oxen: in all places where I record my name I will come unto thee, and I will bless thee.
Command: Make an altar unto me.
Blessing: Everywhere I record my name I will come unto you and I will bless you.
The list goes on and on.
Everywhere God says He will bless someone in the Old Testament, He first gives them a commandment. He lets them know if they obey, they will be blessed. Sounds simple enough. Obey and be blessed.
As we go into the New Testament no longer are commandments given before blessings are offered. Instead, we are given the attributes of a blessed person.
Matthew 5:3-11
These verses describe to us what a blessed person looks like.
Therefore helping us know how we are to behave in order to be considered blessed. In order to properly understand this though we need to understand what is really being said in these scriptures. I mean I don’t know about you but I’d really like to not actually be poor, sad, and hungry all the time. Just to name a few.
In the Old Testament, the poor were the people who cried out for God’s help.
They depended entirely on Him for their needs. The poor were humble and contrite spirits. They are the ones who experienced God’s deliverance and enjoyed His undeserved favor. In light of this information, we now understand that Jesus was describing His disciples as unworthy sinners who depend on God’s grace for salvation. I mean this is essentially what we are. Without Jesus we are nothing. Just desperate lost souls with an eternity of torment waiting on us.
But the good news is we do have Jesus! There is hope for us. We still have an opportunity to be saved and to be blessed. As Christians, we have a relationship with Jesus. We work to be like Him and in doing that we open ourselves to our His teachings. In doing that, we acknowledge that we are weak. We are desperately lost with God. In acknowledging this, we open ourselves to God’s undeserved favor.
We will:
- Have the Kingdom of Heaven
- Be comforted
- Inherit the whole earth
- Be satisfied
- Be shown mercy
- See God
- Be called children of God
- Have the Kingdom of Heaven
Isn’t that the best news ever? That is the blessing we get for serving our Almighty God. No matter what happens in life, by being His disciples, we are promised these things. When life feels like it is too much, stop and examine your life and see that all of these things have been done in your life. And know that they will be done again and again. No matter the trails that you may face, these are the signs that you are blessed. Take comfort, because we are promised comfort in our times of mourning.
Thank you for reading!
Our hope for this post is that it helps you examine your life and know that you are blessed. Because you acknowledge that you are lost and in desperate need of God’s grace and mercy. You open yourself up to the blessings of God. Because you work to model yourself after God’s word. You are blessed. There are things that you have been promised. And God does not break His promises.
If you have any questions, we would be happy to answer them. Justin and I are not pastors or Bible scholars. We are just normal Christians trying to do our best to live for God, spread His word, and encourage others. Don’t forget to check us our on social media. We are on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest, and Youtube. If you would like more faith-focused posts, click here. Again, thank you for reading! God Bless!
