Right around this time is when we see lots of people talking about being blessed and reflecting on their blessings. You may see some parents posting pictures of their families saying they’re #blessed. You may see some pregnancy or proposal announcements with people saying they’re #blessed. You may see some high school boys on Twitter even committing to colleges on athletic scholarships saying they’re #blessed. 

And a lot of the time in our social media world, saying you’re #blessed can be a way of boasting while trying to sound humble, right? Like college scholarship? #Blessed. Unexpected raise? #Blessed. Amazing boyfriend? #Blessed.

But in this blog I wanted to talk about this word that has sort of been twisted in our culture. Because when we get the wrong idea of this word, it can cause a lot of pain and heartache. I’ll explain why in a little bit… 

One thing I want you to think about before we go further is this: What does blessed look like to you? And do you think having a successful life and having a blessed life are synonymous or the same thing? Reflect on that for a minute.

Maybe you’re thinking, “Who cares about what being blessed means? What does this have to do with me?”

This has everything to do with you. Because if you think that being blessed or having a blessed life means having a successful life, you’re going to be disappointed when those successes don’t come to fruition… and you’re probably going to start blaming God when things don’t go your way. Maybe you already have done that.

Like, “God where is my blessing? Why didn’t this work out? Why did you bring me this pain instead of the goodness I was hoping for? You promised to bless me. Why aren’t you?”

I know how important talking about this is, because I’ve fallen into that mindset. In fact, I just fell into it last year!!!

And we’ll get into that later. But here’s what I want you to know:

Being blessed does not mean success. That we have the most money or the most successes or the most victories or the most followers or likes on Instagram or the best looks in the room. 

You’re going to face trials. You’re going to have to face things that don’t make sense, and you’re going to have to go through some really tough things. There’s going to be things that happen to you that you’re not going to understand. You’re going to wonder why and ask God why He has you in the position that He does. But I want you to know that you are blessed through that.

You may be thinking, “How?!? How can I be blessed through that?” It’s because your idea of “blessing” probably doesn’t align with God’s idea of it. 

He’s saying that we’re blessed by our relationship with Him, by His presence. Because when everything else in the world can be stripped away from us, when that promotion falls through, when we lose our spot on the starting lineup, when we get dumped or cheated on, and the worldly things fail us, we can know that we are still blessed by our relationship with Him, by His presence, by having His Spirit live in us. That is the true blessing.

Not having the best house or the nicest car. Or the most friends. Or nicest clothes. Yes, we can be thankful for some of the earthly things God has blessed us with, but these earthly things aren’t what God focuses on in the Word. Instead we are blessed because we have a friend, and His name is Jesus. And we can call upon His name anytime that we want to.

And even when we feel like we’ve been failed or let down, we can dig into His Word and be blessed by what He has to say… by what our friend is telling us.

We can be blessed by His embrace. And his acceptance. And how He always chooses to love us. And to want us. 

There are going to be some things that you have to go through - that maybe you’ve already gone through - but God didn’t promise us an easy life on this earth. So we can’t blame Him for everything and stay bitter. We can be mad sometimes. We can be upset, and we can tell Him how we feel, but we can’t get stuck in those situations, because that’s exactly what we’ll be: stuck.

Not moving forward. Not digging into the Word. Not drawing near to the One who can pour out true blessing.

Some of you have this idea that you’re going to be so blessed and put together when you graduate and get out into the real world and get a job and get married and have babies or buy a house. And let me speak from experience and from someone who used to believe that lie, not everything makes sense just because you’re married. Or because you get a job. If you’re like I was, you may be feeling like the blessings are something that are just out of reach.

I came home from a job I absolutely hated after I found out that I didn’t get another job that was going to get me out of this one that I hated. It was kind of my last string of hope at that time, and I came home, and I was upset. I was crying and beating on the couch.

I just said, “I don’t know who I am or who God wants me to be and what He wants me to do with my life.” I was just sulking in this circumstance. Because I thought that I wasn’t blessed. 

I don’t have a job I love. I’m not doing what I’m passionate about. Why am I not receiving the blessings of God? But then my husband told me something.

He told me that I needed to get into the Word. and I know I’ve told this story before, but it’s such a perfect illustration of what blessing is.

He told me to get into the Word, and I didn’t want to. I wanted to sulk. I wanted to pout. I wanted to feel bad for my circumstance. And be mad at God for not leading me down the right path.

But then later that night I decided to get into the Word, and for some reason, Ephesians was stuck in my mind. So I opened up and right there underlined in Ephesians 1:11 was this line: “It’s in Christ that we find out who we are and what we are living for.”

And Job, which we’re going to dive into soon, Job 12 even tells us something very similar to what Ephesians told me. It says, “True wisdom and real power belong to God; from Him we learn how to live, and also what to live for.”

And that is such a perfect illustration of how the blessings of God don’t always mean that our circumstances or our life situations are going to be A-okay, 100% great.

It means that no matter what is happening in this world, no matter what bad things come our way, no matter what bad decisions family members or friends make, no matter who stabs us in the back, no matter what tests we fail, what destruction comes our way, the blessing is that we know that God is with us and for us, and He’s fighting for us every single moment of every single day.

His love does not fail. And if you could just grasp this, that the blessings of God are that we get to have eternity with Him and we get to have a relationship with Him, and that His Spirit lives in us, and causes us to have certain fruits that we wouldn’t have without - when you can move past the whole earthly #blessed, that’s when you can really discover the blessings of God and what that means for your life.

And what I mean by certain fruits you have within you, it’s that you have the fruits of the spirit. You have love, you have joy, you should have peace, you should have patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. And I’m not saying that at all times you’ll 100% have all of those things - you’re not always going to be patient, you’re not always going to be as loving or as joyful, but when you choose to have Jesus in your heart, and you choose to have a relationship with Him, you can begin to sense the transformation that’s taking place.

I just hope that you know and believe that when Jesus lives in you, when the Holy Spirit lives in you, it should cause you to live a life that raises some eyebrows, that makes some people question some things. That makes people wonder - what is different about her? Or him? I want that. And you can tell them that it is the blessing of God.

The blessing of the relationship that we can have where His Spirit can live in us. And causes us to transform. And be renewed. And to live life in a way that the world doesn’t. 

I also want you to know the story of Job in the Bible. And how there were some things that happened to him that were terrible, terrible things. And even through the pain and the hurt at times, even through some friends feeding lies into his mind, he still chose to believe that God was with him. And that God loved him. He questioned some things, he had emotion, and he told God about it, but Job had to realize that being blessed did not mean success. And that God ultimately has the power to give and take away.

We’re going to dive into his story. We’ll start in Job 1 where it tells us that Job “was the greatest man among all the people of the East.”

But then some bad things happened to Job. He was a great guy. He believed in the Lord. He had everything. But then he started losing everything. His possessions, his family. Things got so bad that his wife even told him to curse God and die. But sometimes real faith cannot be merchandised in success stories. It is refined in the fires and the storms of pain.

In Job 19, Job hangs on to this hope he has in Jesus. He says, “Still, I know that God lives - the One who gives me back my life…”

He had to go through some things and then he came out stronger. And can I just tell you that if I didn’t have the job that I did when I was heartbroken and I was upset and I came home in tears many nights… if I didn’t have that job and that experience, I know that I would not probably be where I’m at today. Who knows where I would be?

But we can believe that God’s going to work all things for good. There might be some things that happen in your life, and the devil wants to destroy, steal, and kill. And I hope that you know that that’s real. 

That there’s somebody working against you. He wants to do everything he can to see you fail. But there’s also somebody working for you who is greater and stronger and more powerful.

There’s going to be times in your life where you hear voices in your mind and you’re not going to know why. They’re going to be negative voices. They’re going to be filled with lies and doubt and fear and worry, anxiety and stress. And it’s not going to sound like you.

It’s because it’s not you.

It’s an enemy. I remember when I was in college during my junior year, and something big was about to happen for me. And I remember talking to a mentor and telling her, “I know that these voices and these things that I’m hearing are not from me. Because that’s not me. I just feel like I’ve had these negative thoughts of things, and these things I’m hearing are trying to tear me down, make me feel like I’m worthless and that I don’t matter. And I know that those things aren’t true. I don’t know why they’re popping in my head.” And I had to realize that the enemy knew something big was about to happen for me. And he was going to do everything he could to keep that from happening. But he didn’t. And sometimes you are going to experience those voices and those thoughts. And you’re going to have to call them out for what they are: Lies. 

And you’re going to have to cling to the blessing of God, the blessing of the relationship that you have with Him, always and forever. Cling to that. To that blessing. Not the earthly, worldly ones. Because if you put your worth into what you do and what happens to you, instead of who you are in Christ, and then all the sudden destruction comes, and a giant wave washes over you and crashes everything around you, you’re going to be left just… drowning.

But if you believe that God has a blessing over your life - that is that He wants to have a relationship with you, that He loves you, that He sent Jesus down to die for you so that you could live with him in heaven for eternity - if you’ve accepted Him into your heart, you can know and trust that no matter what waves come, He will be there to guide you through them. He will be there to part the waters. To help you walk through whatever it is you’re going through. And that is the ultimate blessing.

Job at the end of the story has double the fortune he had than at the start of his story. But after all that, Job knows that those worldly things can be stripped away at any moment. But the blessing of the relationship he has with God is always present.

Following Jesus does not guarantee us earthly blessings. Surely we should be thankful for the material things the Lord gives us. Because God does make a way for us. He does work things out for our good. But the main thing is that having a relationship with Christ is the biggest blessing, and that’s what He wants us to focus on. We’re truly blessed when we experience Christ as our love, our peace, our patience, our satisfaction, our joy, and so many other aspects of Himself.

So you can either sit there and sulk about what has happened to you or what you thought would happen but didn’t, OR you can lean into God and the blessing that He is to you.

Here’s what I want you to take away from this: God didn't promise us an easy life, but the promise He did make is far greater! The promise that He’ll be with us through it all.