More Blessings Please

Are most of us doing good works hoping to receive blessings, or are we doing good works to please God? Does doing good things, or good works mean we should expect something in return, even if it’s from God?

I often hear, “That was such a nice thing you did, God will give you blessings.”

Or you may hear, “If you give more money to the church, you will receive a blessing from God, he will give you more money in return.” Maybe a blessing God wants to give, has nothing to do with money. Or for that matter, how do you know God is planning to do anything?

First we can establish that as a Christian, we know that God does bless us. He blesses us everyday, when we have food to eat or a nice warm bed to sleep in. He blesses us when our cars start in the morning and we can get to work on time. He blesses us when we can have good health to be able to take care of our children everyday. Some fail to see all the wonderful blessings in their lives each day.

God blessed us all with a gift, his son Jesus, to die on that cross for our sins. If God never blessed me with one more thing, how could I ask for more after the death of his son? If we stop to take a look at our lives, we realize just how truly blessed we are.

In the Hebrew the word bless or blessing has two meanings;

1) baw-rak’ – as an act of adoration, towards God or man, to praise, to thank

2) ber-aw-kaw’ – blessing as in prosperity

In the Greek the words ‘bless, blessed, and blessing’ show up in quite a few different meanings throughout the new testament. Although there are different Greek words used for these, they closely resemble the following two meanings.

Bless, blessed, blessing – eulogeō, yoo-log-eh’-o – means to speak well of (religiously), thank or invoke a benediction upon, prosper, praise.

eulogia, yoo-log-ee’-ah – speaking well of someone, which is where the word ‘eulogy’ comes from.

Also in the Greek the word ‘blessed’ as Jesus explains in Matthew 5:3-12, denotes a more inward happiness. Makarios -mak-ar’-ee-os, meaning supremely blessed; by extension fortunate, well off: – blessed, happy

So when we talk about blessings, it does not necessarily mean prosperity. When we do things that are pleasing to God, it could simply mean we are blessed, because we are spoken well of. Or perhaps are blessed by living a life pleasing to God and have the peace that comes with being a child of God. Shouldn’t all of us be satisfied with God thinking well of us?

Scripture does tell us, when God is pleased, he may choose to bless us with prosperity here on earth, or we may receive our reward in heaven. But, throughout the Bible we have seen when God is pleased, he does bless in various ways.

The ‘prosperous’ kind of blessing is often called reward. Maybe by using the word ‘blessing’ it makes us more comfortable than the word, ‘reward.’ Saying to someone, “I am so blessed by God” seems a little less self centered than saying , “I am so rewarded by God.” But when many people talk about blessings it’s usually about prosperity, not about be spoken well of. You can hear the prosperity messages in many sermons taught today. Some of the sermons seem to be sounding like the more you give, the more you get. In a way this type of teaching can backfire and cause discouragement. If someone gives their time or money to the church or others, and they still seem to be having difficulty in their lives, they may stop serving others because they are not seeing the rewards. Giving or serving others should be taught as a means of loving God, not what we believe will come our way if we do those things.

The scriptures throughout, shows so many wonderful blessings that God does give. Blessings, gifts, or rewards is a benefit of pleasing God, but they are given at his discretion.

There was a woman who labored all day without pay. She drove around delivering boxes of food to those who are less fortunate. As she is driving, she starts thinking to herself about what type of blessing God may reward her with. God aware of her labor, decided to hold back the rain, so that she could deliver those boxes without getting wet or having trouble driving. After her day of laboring she’s thinking, one day she would be rewarded by God surely, because it was so much work. Unfortunately, as she is still expecting a blessing, she never stopped to notice, that God already gave her a blessing.

We all should look and see each day how blessed we truly are.

James 1:17 Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.

Acts 20:35 I have shewed you all things, how that so labouring ye ought to support the weak, and to remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he said,

It is more blessed to give than to receive.