If you’ve spent any time on social media recently, you’ll have seen #blessed being used on a lot of posts. But how often do we just add that on, and devalue what being blessed really means? Blessings come in all shapes and sizes. There’s the blessing of living to see another day, the blessing of healing, blessing of friendship, blessing of a new revelation from God – the list could just keep going. God loves to bless us. The Bible says: ‘Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights’ (James 1:17 NIV). He gives us gifts, or blessings, not because we deserve them, but because He wants to give them to us. Blessings occur a lot throughout the Bible. God often wants to bless His people. And His people often want to bless each other. A great example of this is Isaac’s blessing of his sons. Here’s how Isaac prayed: ‘May God give you heaven’s dew and earth’s richness – an abundance of grain and new wine’ (Genesis 27:28 NIV). This blessing should have been for the firstborn, Esau. But Jacob tricked Isaac and received the blessing himself (read the whole story in Genesis 27). Our perfect Father doesn’t only bless the most mature Christians or the ones who’ve made the least mistakes. His blessings aren’t just available for some, but for all His children. We don’t have to compete for them. We have to be obedient in order to receive them, but they are there ready for us. Feeling #blessed shouldn’t become a lifestyle trend or status quo. It’s an incredible privilege to be called a child of God and to be blessed by our Father, who loves us so much that He wants to shower us with His blessings.
