Furthermore, the idea of being “blessed” is sometimes associated with prosperity gospel teaching, where it can seem that Christianity, and even our salvation, can become self-focused—all about being #blessed.

In this post I will face my hesitations to reclaim (or reaffirm) the blessing of God.

The Blessings of the Lord

Despite my hesitations, the reality is that God does, at times, bless people. The theme is especially prominent in the Old Testament.

• “Let your wife be a fountain of blessing for you” (Proverbs 5:18, similarly Ruth’s husband in Ruth 1:9). My wife is surely a blessing to me!
• “The Lord blesses them with peace” (Psalm 29:11).
• “How blessed you are, O Israel! … He is your protecting shield and your triumphant sword!” (Deuteronomy 33:29).
• “I will bless you with food and water, and I will protect you from illness. …and I will give you long, full lives” (Exodus 23:25-26).

Overall, one can be blessed with a generally good and pleasurable life:

Your towns and your fields will be blessed. Your children and your crops will be blessed. The offspring of your herds and flocks will be blessed. Your fruit baskets and breadboards will be blessed. Wherever you go and whatever you do, you will be blessed” (Deuteronomy 28:3-6).

Wealth or Not?

Those who preach prosperity are correct that sometimes God blesses with riches and wealth:

• “The blessing of the LORD makes a person rich, and He adds no sorrow with it” (Proverbs 10:22).
• “And the LORD has greatly blessed my master [Abraham]; he has become wealthy. The LORD has given him flocks of sheep and goats, herds of cattle, a fortune in silver and gold, and many male and female servants and camels and donkeys” (Genesis 24:35).

But the blessing of wealth is not a promise for every Christian. In fact, sometimes God’s blessing means that we have what we need, even when we don’t have much. Consider what the Bible says about the Israelites when they were wondering through the wilderness for forty years.

For the LORD your God has blessed you in everything you have done. He has watched your every step through this great wilderness. During these forty years, the LORD your God has been with you, and you have lacked nothing” (Deuteronomy 2:7).

That was not a time of wealth and abundance! But they were blessed.

Claiming and Declaring Blessings

All of the above blessings are not guaranteed for every Christian. God doesn’t bless everyone in the same way. That’s why I’ve used phrases above like “God’s blessings can include,” and “sometimes God blesses with riches.”

So, how can we ensure we receive God’s blessing? We can’t.

It is very clear that the Bible never says we need to claim God’s blessings as though they are all rightfully ours.

(I have no Bible verses to quote here because it isn’t in the Bible—that’s my point.)

The Bible also never says that God will bless us only if we have enough faith.

And it certainly never says that we will receive God’s blessing only if we decree or declare them over our lives.

(The Bible verse you are thinking of doesn’t work if you consider it’s context.)

In many respects, God’s blessings are not promised to us. At least not all of them. Rather, to some extent, we receive God’s blessings as gifts that come from God’s grace. The result is that we can even speak of receiving “one gracious blessing after another” (John 1:16).

The Secret to Receive God’s Blessing—For Real!

At the same time, the Bible does make it clear that many of God’s blessings are in response to what we do—and in that sense, I’m not so sure blessings are only gifts.

If there is any secret to receiving God’s blessing, it is this—living a righteous life, in obedience to God. This is a theme from the beginning to the end of Scripture.

God told the Israelites on many occasions, “You will be blessed if you obey the commands of the LORD your God that I am giving you today” (Deuteronomy 11:27). We also read, “You bless the godly, O LORD” (Psalms 5:12). And “The LORD … blesses the home of the upright” (Proverbs 3:33). This includes, specifically, those who are generous with the poor (Proverbs 14:21 and 22:9).

Jesus taught that those who are humble, just, merciful, pure in heart, and peacemakers will be blessed (Mathew 5:2-12). And in the book of Revelation, Jesus says, “Blessed are those who obey the words of prophecy written in this book” (Revelation 22:7).

In direct contrast to those who receive blessing in response to their obedience, Jeremiah informed those around him, “Your wickedness has deprived you of these wonderful blessings. Your sin has robbed you of all these good things” (Jeremiah 5:25).

I say that living in obedience to God is the “secret” to blessing, because I don’t get the sense that prosperity preachers give as much emphasis to obedience as they typically do to having faith. Having said that, if we rightly understand faith, then our faith should lead us to obedience.

The Problem of Blessing

The reality is that even godly living doesn’t guarantee God’s blessing…at least not in this present life. And a lack of blessing doesn’t necessarily point to disobedience. For example, consider that “the LORD blessed Job in the second half of his life” (Job 42:12), even though he first experienced significant suffering.

I also often remind myself that some of the heroes of faith who are listed in Hebrews 11 faced a lot of challenges in life, like being destitute, mistreated, tortured, put in prison, or cut in half (verses 35-37)! This happened even though they were “too good for this world” (Hebrews 11:38). Where was there blessing?

We might call this the problem of blessing—but really it is just another instance of the problem of evil.

And to make matters worse, those who are disobedient to God, sometimes seem “blessed.” We take caution from the prophet Malachi:

You have said, ‘What’s the use of serving God? What have we gained by obeying His commands or by trying to show the LORD of Heaven’s Armies that we are sorry for our sins? From now on we will call the arrogant blessed. For those who do evil get rich, and those who dare God to punish them suffer no harm.” (Malachi 3:14-15)

And, here again, the problem of blessing rears its ugly head.

Answers to the Problem of Blessing

What can we say about those who do not seem so “blessed,” especially if it seems that they are living in complete obedience to God? Maybe they are even “entirely sanctified” (if you believe in that).

I can think of at least three possible answers.

1. Maybe the person is not blessed in the same way as you, but maybe you are looking for the wrong blessing. In other words, maybe God is blessing them in ways that aren’t immediately obvious to you.
2. We trust that God in his wisdom, love, and sovereignty, knows best when it comes to how and when to bless people.
3. We understand that God will also provide blessing in the afterlife.

A Blessing for YOU

I will close this #Blessed blogpost with a blessing for you.

The Lord “will bless those who fear the LORD, both great and lowly. May the LORD richly bless both you and your children. May you be blessed by the LORD, who made heaven and earth” (Psalms 115:12-15).

Amen.

You might also be interested in these posts:

• 10 Bible Verses You Can Legitimately Declare Over Your Life
• There is Power in the Tongue, but Not for Declarations and Decrees
• 10 Ways to Pray the DEMONS out of Your Heathen CAT

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Andrew K. Gabriel, Ph.D., is the author of Simply Spirit-Filled: Experiencing God in the Presence and Power of the Holy Spirit as well as three academic books, including The Lord is the Spirit. He is a theology professor at Horizon College and Seminary and serves on the Theological Study Commission for the Pentecostal Assemblies of Canada. You can follow him on Facebook or on Twitter.

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