“Blessed are the…
The word blessing is one that most Christians are familiar with today. You hear it in church a lot;
“The Lord wants to bless you”
“God bless you”
“I pray God’s blessing upon you”
“Obey and you’ll be blessed”
“Give and you’ll be blessed”
The thing is the word blessing implied most often when these phrases are said and taught is one of tangible or monetary blessing. The implication is that if you do not have… xyz – you are not blessed….or you lack…
Not so.
We are blessed with or without the extras and quite often blessing comes more in the places of loss or want. Don’t get me wrong every good and perfect thing comes from above, so you can have good ‘things’, good ‘experiences’, monetary blessings and so on. However the blessing is the Giver.
No one wants to be without. No one wants to want. No one wants to lack any good thing and yet one of Jesus’ most famous dissertations comes from Him describing in great detail these things of blessing and whom the blessings touch.
Weak, meek, poor, those who hunger, those who mourn, those who thirst..
What it doesn’t say is blessed are the lofty, prideful, stuffed, exorbitant, abundant, satisfied.
Blessed are the poor in spirit,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.Blessed are those who mourn,
for they will be comforted.Blessed are the meek,
for they will inherit the earth.Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness,
for they will be filled.Blessed are the merciful,
for they will be shown mercy.Blessed are the pure in heart,
for they will see God.Blessed are the peacemakers,
for they will be called children of God.Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me.
Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you. Matthew 5:1-12
With Thanksgiving and Christmas holiday coming up you will inevitably find people recounting their ‘blessings’ on Facebook. The things that make our life beautiful, family, friends, things…yes these are blessings…they are the extra graces that the Lord chooses to bestow upon us in ADDITION to Himself…but He..He calls us blessed when we are without…
He calls us blessed when we are poor and weak, when we thirst, when we hunger.
He calls us blessed when we are in want.
He calls us blessed when we choose peace.
He calls us blessed when we seek peace.
He calls us blessed in our receiving of Him for He is the gift our souls were made for. The gift of He who let go of pride and in humility laid down his life, who in meekness exercised control over strength that we would be made whole in and through His suffering.
We are blessed Christians.
We are blessed in Christ.
We are blessed through Christ.
We are blessed in spite of ourselves.
We are blessed not by things or people or experiences or aspirations or monetary gain. We are blessed not by knowledge or gifts.
We are blessed that in our lack we are made complete and called by the one who calls us Beloved.
