In last week’s blog, we studied deeply the beatitudes and each of their meanings.
If you haven’t read it and would like to, click the button below
Many of us struggle to feel blessed for a multitude of reasons. This life is hard and sometimes feels completely overwhelming. There are seasons that feel as if defeat is waiting around every corner. While I do not want to minimize the pain of the season that you are in, my hope instead is to encourage you and remind you that even when it all feels hopeless, we can rest assured and know that hope is not lost. Because God is good, always in control, and because of His love for us, we are abundantly blessed.
SO REMEMBER...
Blessed is not based on your
ever-changing worldly circumstances.
Being blessed has nothing to do with the things that we acquire on this earth. Monetary possessions and things that we earn and receive while living here will NOT go with us when we leave this world. However, that does not mean that there is necessarily something sinful or wrong with these things because the truth is that we do have the option to use the things that we receive on this earth as a way of sharing Christ and putting him on display for the world instead of ourselves.
Worldly things and circumstances can become sinful and in opposition to the Lord when we place importance on them over the purpose for which God placed us here. We are blessed because we are children of God and because of this we know that regardless of how good or bad our days turn out, there is something far greater that waits for us when God calls us home.
Matthew 6:19-21 “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”
Psalm 144:15 “Blessed are the people to whom such blessings fall! Blessed are the people whose God is the Lord!”
Jeremiah 17:7-8 “Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, whose trust is the Lord. He is like a tree planted by water, that sends out its roots by the stream, and does not fear when heat comes, for its leaves remain green, and is not anxious in the year of drought, for it does not cease to bear fruit.”
Blessed is upside down from what the world views as happy. Being Blessed does not mean we don’t struggle.
Instead, it means that we recognize that our strength, abilities, purpose, and resilience exist only because of Christ and the work that He is doing through us. If we relate blessedness to perfect days, most likely there will be very few days that we feel blessed. When we find ourselves in difficult moments and trials, our trust in Christ is the way in which we are blessed. God can use the hardest of times to sanctify us and mold us more into the person that we were created to be. Struggles on this earth should be fully expected because of the broken state in which we live. But God, in all His goodness has a perfect plan despite the pain and hardships that we experience.
James 1:12 “Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial, for when he has stood the test he will receive the crown of life, which God has promised to those who love him.”
1 Timothy 6:6 “But godliness with contentment is great gain, for we brought nothing into the world, and we cannot take anything out of the world.
Blessed is a state of JOY that is available to us because of our connection to Christ.
Joy is not an emotion that is a product of happy times and moments that we experience. Instead, joy is available during the good, bad, happy, and sad times. Joy can exist in struggles and celebrations simultaneously. We are joyfully blessed because we know that the Creator of the Universe loves us so much that He sent His only Son to die for our sins so that we can be brought back into a right relationship with him.
And for those who have this joy because of their belief and trust in Christ and their Savior, they can rest and know that when their time on this earth is up, they will meet their maker face to face in a place of perfection.
Romans 14:7 “For none of us lives to himself, and none of us dies to himself.”
Matthew 6:33 “But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.”
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