I don’t know about you, but I hear this sentiment all the time – from all sorts of people – religious, irreligious, genuine Christians, all sorts. And there is a sense in which it is true, that every good thing in life, truly is a blessing which comes from the hand of God.

A problem however, is that the term “blessed” has become a catch-all for anything that pleases us. Good, bad, or indifferent. If we like it, we say we’re blessed. It’s become more like the idea of being lucky. And in a lot of cases, it makes no clear or reasonable connection to God as the “blessor”. Even at that, for some, God as the blessor takes on more the cast of being the cosmic “Candy Man.” God’s job so-to-speak is to sit around and make life nice and pleasant for us in everything. Again, there is a grain of truth here in that the only reason we have any good or pleasant things in this fallen world and given our sinfulness, is due the glorious magnanimity of God. As Jesus told us in Matt. 5, so good is God that He makes the rain to fall on both the just and the unjust.

A second problem is more subtle, and perhaps even dangerous. It is that given this “it gives me pleasure” or “I like it” mindset attached to all “blessing”, then all blessing gets thrown into the blessing = stuff basket, instead of blessing being the good grace of God Himself. That He is the ultimate blessing, and every temporal good or pleasure, is simply a symptom of the true blessedness He intends. It is why in the beatitudes, Jesus can tell us we can be (and if we are in Christ ARE) blessed when poor, mourning and even persecuted. That can only be true if we locate our blessedness in Him, and not in stuff He does or gives. So it is we read in Numbers 7: “ ‘The LORD spoke to Moses: “Tell Aaron and his sons, ‘This is the way you are to bless the Israelites. Say to them: “The LORD bless you and protect you; The LORD make his face to shine upon you, and be gracious to you; The LORD lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace.” ’ “So they will put my name on the Israelites, and I will bless them.”

What is important to note here is that the fullness of blessing is located completely in the Lord Himself.

a. The Lord be your happiness.

b. The Lord be your safety.

c. The Lord be personally and favorably disposed toward you.

d. The Lord be to you what you do not deserve.

e. The Lord look at you with a smile on His face.

f. The Lord be the source of your peace.

Our blessing – our total blessing is in Him. All external blessings are but symbols of being His in glorious union.

If this is not your blessedness – then the temporal blessings will one day be a testimony to the hardness and materialism of your heart. But if you are in Christ – oh how blessed we really are. And how we need to grasp this blessedness as ours irrespective of any outward circumstances. It cannot be taken away. It cannot suffer from any external influence. This is what it really means to be “blessed.”

I pray you are today.