Are you \u201cblessed\u201d?<\/p>\n
There are many Christians, myself included, who would suggest that by the sheer nature of our Salvation in Jesus Christ, we are, indeed, a blessed people.<\/p>\n
But if you asked a room full of people what it means to be \u201cblessed,\u201d I suspect you\u2019d get a wide array of answers.<\/p>\n
For some, to be blessed means to have health, wealth and a good family.<\/p>\n
To others, to be blessed means to travel the world or climb a mountain.<\/p>\n
And then there are those of us who acknowledge that God blesses us even through a trial by showing us His faithfulness and love. Or how He blesses us with His comfort after the death of a child, or with food to eat after the loss of a job.<\/p>\n
The Bible refers to being blessed in a variety of contexts, perhaps most notably in the Beatitudes (Matthew 5:2-12).<\/p>\n
Of course, in that scene, Jesus suggests that to be truly blessed may look nothing like the usual things that come to mind when we consider the word.<\/p>\n
Recently, the subject of being \u201cblessed\u201d has even been addressed by secular media outlets.<\/p>\n
What\u2019s prompted the attention?<\/p>\n
The \u201c#blessed\u201d hashtag has been used so often on social media that one particular critic in The New York Times is suggesting that it\u2019s become \u201cthe go-to term for those who want to boast about an accomplishment while pretending to be humble, fish for a compliment, acknowledge a success (without sounding too conceited), or purposely elicit envy.\u201d<\/p>\n
How can a word that is supposed to mean \u201cendowed with divine favor and protection\u201d take on such an opposing use?<\/p>\n
Yet a quick look at Facebook, Twitter or Instagram shows just how popular the hashtag has become \u2013 and that prevalence inevitably lends itself to misuse.<\/p>\n
Does it matter?<\/p>\n
Some Christians have responded by not using it any longer.<\/p>\n
For example, a former missionary even called blessed \u201cThe One Thing Christians Should Stop Saying,\u201d asserting that \u201ccalling myself blessed because of material good fortune is just plain wrong.\u201d<\/p>\n
This author certainly does seem to have a point in light of the Beatitudes and Jesus\u2019 complete lack of reference to material comforts in that teaching.<\/p>\n
And yet, we also see that the Bible does use the word in places to describe safety and provision. We read in James 1:17 that \u201cEvery good gift and every perfect gift is from above.\u201d<\/p>\n
So perhaps the answer isn\u2019t in avoiding the word, but expanding it to its full meaning.<\/p>\n
Many of us have found in our Christian walk that blessings can take many forms.<\/p>\n
Speaking very personally, I would never suggest that losing my mom to cancer at 9, or my dad to alcoholism at 12, was a \u201cblessing\u201d \u2013 but years later, I can certainly appreciate and understand the truth of Romans 8:28: \u201cAnd we know that for those who love God all things work together for good.\u201d<\/p>\n
I like what C.S. Lewis once suggested: \u201cWhen we lose one blessing, another is often most unexpectedly given in its place.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Are you \u201cblessed\u201d? There are many Christians, myself included, who would suggest that by the sheer nature of our Salvation in Jesus Christ, we are, indeed, a blessed people. But if you asked a room full of people what it means to be \u201cblessed,\u201d I suspect you\u2019d get a wide array of answers. For some, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1259,565,3360,3197,3691,776],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6131"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6131"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6131\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6131"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6131"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6131"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}