Blessings and Gifts

When is the last time you were blessed by God? I mean really, really BLESSED. Warning, I'm setting you up. I'm very guilty of this myself, so it's not just you. I saw a tweet post about being incredibly blessed the other day by someone who had received something. Maybe it was just the wording, but it hit me like a ton of bricks. I know nothing of the situation they were talking about, but it got me thinking. I tend to only think about God's blessings when it is in connection with something I want. I have a hunch I'm not alone in this.

God doesn't simply give us the things we want or think we need. God gives us what He knows we need. Sometimes His gifts and our wants/needs line up, sometimes they don't. When they line up we say, we are blessed. When they don't line up, we tend to overlook the blessing. Think about the gifts God gives. James 1:17 tells us He only gives the good and perfect gifts. We see those as blessings, funny thing though, they aren't called blessings…they are called gifts.

I got to thinking about the blessings mentioned in Matthew 5:2-12. I'm not simply blessed because I receive something from God, but I'm blessed, when my motives are pure. When I have a pure heart I get to see God! Talk about being incredibly blessed! And that's just one of the many blessings talked about in the scriptures.

The final thought I had was this, we all want to be blessed. Right? So look at a text like Matthew 5:2-12 and realize that we can be blessed by living for God, not just by receiving from God.

all about Christ,
David