It should be obvious when someone begins going through a quasi-alphabetical list that eventually one will come across an object that presents more of a mystery. "Blessed" is one such.
One, it seems too general. Being "adopted" is a blessing. Being "appointed" is a blessing. All parts of identity in Christ are blessings.
Two, I have a Bible passage associated with each identity trait. The passage associated with "blessed" uses the same word from the original language three times. Well, not the same word precisely. The first "blessed" is related to the Father. The intent is giving thanks or praise. It is a celebration of God's generosity to us.
The second two are used together. One is in verb form; one is in noun form. And I'm sorry, but "being blessed with blessings" just sounds foreign to this English speaker. The verb refers to generous giving, producing prosperity and happiness. The noun refers to numerous benefits given to us. The passage actually says "all the blessings. "
When we gave our allegiance to Jesus, we became citizens of his kingdom and members of his family. Right at that moment, all the privileges of citizenship become ours. Right at that moment, all the privileges of family became ours. We were given our own set of keys to the house. If God's family had a family car, we would be given keys to it too. If God's kingdom had elections, we would have gotten our polling place card.
● God's Perspective
We are given all the blessings. It is true, we may not be experiencing all the blessings. But we do have the right and authority to reach out and access them. If we are a member of the country club, we have a right to golf. We also have the right to use a golf cart. Because we like to walk, or don't know where the golf cart garage is, does not mean that we are not allowed to use one. Maybe we need to ask a question. Like "Where is the garage?" And "how do I get the keys? "
We are members of the family. It doesn't matter who we were or are, we are not cut off from the blessing of God. We are not banned from access to blessing, because of age, gender, ethnicity, religious affiliation, position or title (or lack of position or title) or education. We gain access to the blessings of the Father, based on the fact that we are members of the family of God, and how much trust we put in the generosity of our Father. I need to recognize my need for what God has to give, and to recognize his willingness and desire to give it.
● Living My Life
Many of God's children live like orphans. They assume they need to go through life using their will power, their resources and their strength.
This is especially true regarding making changes to their life to live in agreement with God's design. The more deeply rooted a pattern (sin or otherwise) is in their life, the more fixed it is in their hearts. And all of our strength and will power has no effect on our hearts. We might be able to say "no" to something for a while, but we will always fall back into old patterns and failures.
The Father has what we need to live out our decisions. He has resources to restore our hearts. And he wants to make these resources available. We need to trust his generosity. We need to trust that what he makes available is sufficient.
Maybe we need to be given more to prayer -- to identify the holes in our hearts, to request the resources to fill them. Maybe we need to trust his generosity more.
If a father, who is perfectly faithful and trustworthy, promises to deposit some money in their child's account to provide for a need, should the child wait for some outside confirmation? Or should the child just write the check? It is human to wait for confirmation. It is trust to write the check.
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