Want to Know About Being Blessed Versus Blessings?
Parent’s Want To See Their Children Excel
Parents long to see their children succeed. I know I do. I am at my happiest when I see both my daughter and my son reach greater heights than I did at their ages. The happiest part of being a parent is to see your offspring excel! Don’t you think this is the same for our Heavenly Father? I reckon it’s even more so. He always wants the best for us, and to be blessed, succeed and prosper in all that we do and all that we want to become.
Jesus says it like this in Matthew 7:11 (NKJV):
If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him!
Multiplication
Because of our needs, wants, and desires sometimes differ from those of God, we need to ask Him first before we decide what is best for ourselves. As we can see throughout Scripture, in order to receive His best, sometimes we have to let go of the things we think we need the most. Let’s look the story of Abram in (Genesis 12:1-9) to examine this. When we meet Abram here, it was before God changed his name to Abraham. In Hebrew, the letters A and H together mean or indicate “great joy.” See the Lord was about to add great joy to Abram’s life, so He added a part of His own name to Abram, and thereby, creating the name Abraham. God also did the same for Abram’s wife Sarai, changing her name to Sarah. A double blessing!
Letting Go To Gain More – Why?
But God needed Abram and Sarai to leave their country to go to a land He wanted to show them. His intention was to make Abram’s name great and to be blessed. The word “great” in this passage of Scripture means exceedingly, or a whole lot of excess. The word “nation” means to rise up and increase. So basically, God was saying “It is My will to give you excessive increase.” Why is this you ask? It’s because God wanted to give them so much more as His beloved children.
Blessed Versus Blessings
So, what was the purpose of this? God said He was going to make them a blessing, the word “blessing” in this context is different from the Hebrew word “blessed.” Blessed is highly favored, healthy, wealthy and so on; however the word “blessing” means a liberal giver for God’s purpose. Or in laymen’s terms, He wants us to be blessed so that we can be liberal givers for His purpose. In other words, it is for the purpose of building His kingdom. That’s why when we line up with His purpose and ask for the things pertaining to His kingdom, then He will always give us more than enough to overflowing so that we can give out.
Planning & Alignment
We need to know what God wants for us and what that looks like. Only then we can align ourselves from His position. Let’s look at it from a slightly different viewpoint from (1 Chronicles 28); David wanted to build the temple, but God chose his son Solomon instead. Usually, God reveals His plan one step at a time. It may not look like what we hoped for or thought it would be, but in the long run, God always knows better than us. Once again, we can see how much greater Solomon prospered and succeeded from the blessings of the Lord through his father David. And especially when David let go of his own desires and pursued God’s heart and mind on the subject.
Cultivating an Atmosphere For Growth
To create an atmosphere of success and continued blessings, we need to look for the signs He is showing us. Carefully listen to the voice of Holy Spirit, prayerfully evaluate the situation in hand, reject all negative feedback that breeds doubt, and expectantly ask God for His wisdom. Then we can cultivate our quick response to God and act on it.
Just Know Who You Are!
Do you want to be prosperous, blessed and succeed in all things? Then don’t try and justify set-backs or failures, just carry on moving forward. Refuse to stay bogged down, get up again and give thanks that you are not done yet. Don’t blame others for not being where you want to be, and so set your sights on where you want to go! Start by circling today’s date on your calendar and declare that the best most blessed and prosperous days of your life are just beginning. Give thanks for where you are and choose to believe you have a Heavenly Father who always wants to give you good things! When you do, you will make the Father rejoice in the prosperity of you, His child.