I am Blessed (and so are you…)

Bless you. Let’s say the blessing. Bless your heart! I am so blessed. God bless America. The blessed life is the best life. And let’s not forget posting a picture of our new car with the infamous hashtag: #blessed.

The word bless is a common part of our everyday talk. It’s become a word we toss around casually, a spiritual version of our wish that came true. People use the word to describe their nice cars, big houses and bank accounts. But this word encapsulates much more than the desire for well-being or materialism. 

The idea of earning blessing is a type of “Christian magic” where we think we can coerce God into treating us special. If I just do the right thing or say the right thing, surely He will do what I deserve. Surely he will bless me! This is performance-based thinking; it’s anti biblical and ungodly.

God is about relationship and not magic. Magic is about formulas and behavior. Relationship is about mystery and trust. Blessing is relational, not material. So we can throw away the score sheets and sticker charts, along with our ideas that God owes us something, or that we’ve earned our way into blessing. Relationships don’t need record keeping!

So what does blessing mean? The sermon on the mount was taught by Jesus and also talks about blessing. Matthew 5 says:

Have you ever felt: poor in spirit? mournful? meek? desiring of righteousness? merciful? pure in heart? peacemaking? Have you ever been persecuted or had something evil said against you? <<raises hand for every one>>

But look at the other half of the verses. What is the blessing?
The kingdom of heaven
Comfort
Inheritance
Satisfaction
Receiving Mercy
Seeing God
Being Sons/Daughters of God
Joy & Gladness

These are all relationship attributes. We receive comfort from someone who loves us when we’re hurting. We receive inheritance, not because we have earned something, but because we belong to them as an heir. He calls us sons and daughters. We receive satisfaction and mercy through relationship. We experience joy and gladness in relationship.

Our human tendency is to take these verses and make them into a checklist. “Just act merciful and then you’ll receive your mercy!” We use the checklist then as a way to give some Christian advice, which often falls short and leaves people feeling alone in their circumstances. Making blessing into cause and effect takes away the very gift blessing is.

Many times blessings are revealed in hardship. Life is not bubble gum and raindrops on roses all the time. The blessing is seeing the immovable love of God during my struggle. It’s unwrapping his grace in my failure… again. It’s having a deep hope in the face of rejection. It’s having peace in troubled waters. 

When we make the entire gift out to be a behavior-reward exchange, we actually withhold or confuse blessing. We think the blessing is things or situations or outcomes. In the face of hardship we respond with feeling unloved, unwanted, hopeless, helpless, restless and uncertain in who we are and who God is. Isn’t our reaction usually: “If God is good then why is this happening?” Confusing the definition of blessing leaves us in a dangerous place of questioning and doubting the goodness of God.

The blessing is always within us, just hovering beneath the surface. As we go deeper with Jesus, He reveals blessing to us. As we yield to the spirit drilling deep into our hearts, through hard soil and dead things, he shows us blessing. 

Blessing is not a measuring stick. It’s not goods that we receive. It’s not a heavenly checkbook. Blessing is our identity: Redeemed. Chosen. Adopted. Forgiven. Holy. Blameless. Daughter. Known. Receiver of grace, wisdom and mystery. Sealed by God in Christ through His Holy Spirit. No circumstance can shake those descriptors. No good deed can earn those titles. No sin or wrong can withhold who we are.

The apostles taught in Acts it is more blessed to give than to receive. Isn’t this real relationship, and real love- to sacrifice? To become like Christ we must give as he gave, too. There’s an undercurrent of sacrifice in the Beatitudes. To be a peacemaker means I lay down my right to defend myself. To be persecuted means to choose not to retaliate. To be merciful means I give forgiveness to people who might not deserve pardon.

When devastation and loss happens, it’s not punishment from God for not following the rules. I believe He is WITH us in our sufferings. That is the blessing- a relationship that cannot be shaken because of our behavior or performance. An identity no one can alter, to include myself. Blessing is becoming more fully who He says I am. Blessing is taking up the cause and yoke of Christ, and being Christlike to others. Only when I can fully be myself IN Him, can I be a blessing to others.

We are blessed because of WHO Jesus is, what His identity is, and what our identity is because of our relationship with him. YOU are already blessed. The blessing is ours in, through and because of Christ. The blessing IS the inheritance- it’s our birthright. It’s who we are. We get to BE the blessing to one another.