Do you ever think about what it means to be blessed?
In the Old Testament, you have passages that speak of blessings flowing from listening to God.
Now if you really obey the Lord your God’s voice, by carefully keeping all his commandments that I am giving you right now, then the Lord your God will set you high above all nations on earth. 2 All these blessings will come upon you and find you if you obey the Lord your God’s voice: 3 You will be blessed in the city and blessed in the field. 4 Your own fertility, your soil’s produce, and your livestock’s offspring—the young of both cattle and flocks—will be blessed. 5 Your basket and your kneading bowl will be blessed. 6 You will be blessed when you are out and about and blessed when you come back. 7 The Lord will defeat any enemies who attack you. They will come against you from one direction but will run for their lives away from you in seven different directions. 8 The Lord will command the blessing to be with you—in your barns and on all the work you do—and he will bless you on the land the Lord your God is giving you. (Deuteronomy 28, CEB)
You hear promises of God providing in abundance, blessing in every part of your life. This passage highlights most everything we typically equate with being blessed: food, protection and riches.
We carry this thinking into what it means to be a Christian, thinking if I do everything right and follow Jesus, then I too will have all these blessings.
When life comes at us and brings its fair share of problems, we start to question ourselves. Before too long, we are questioning God. We think, what did I do to deserve this? God must be upset with me.
We need to be very careful when we think this way, for soon enough, we begin to think God doesn’t even love us anymore. We get frustrated and angry at God.
All this happens because we have a misunderstanding of blessing. As Christians, we must remember all of our blessings come through the work of Jesus Christ.
Bless the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! He has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing that comes from heaven. (Ephesians 1:3, CEB)
You are blessed! You were dead, and now you are alive. You were separated from God for all of eternity, but now, through the work of Jesus Christ you are adopted into God’s family.
Health, family, food and wealth are all good, but they aren’t promised to us in the way we often think about them as blessings. Rather, the New Testament is clear what is promised to us as followers of Jesus Christ.
21 You were called to this kind of endurance, because Christ suffered on your behalf. He left you an example so that you might follow in his footsteps. 22 He committed no sin, nor did he ever speak in ways meant to deceive. 23 When he was insulted, he did not reply with insults. When he suffered, he did not threaten revenge. Instead, he entrusted himself to the one who judges justly. 24 He carried in his own body on the cross the sins we committed. He did this so that we might live in righteousness, having nothing to do with sin. By his wounds you were healed. 25 Though you were like straying sheep, you have now returned to the shepherd and guardian of your lives. (1 Peter 2, CEB)
As Christians, we are called to suffer as Christ suffered. This means our blessings are not fully defined by how well life is going or not. We do not have to doubt God, and we do not have to question if He still loves us.
God loves you and you are blessed through the work of Jesus Christ!
Blessings,
Pastor Matt