Ever have someone send you a chain letter or private FB message requesting you \u201cforward this message and you\u2019ll be blessed\u201d? Or maybe you were promised a special blessing if you\u2019d just type \u201cAmen\u201d or share with your friends? I love the thoughts of special blessings \u2013 but I think we\u2019ve missed the point of blessings and where they come from. I\u2019ve found that those share\/like\/send-and-you’ll-be-blessed messages and graphics can be annoying and they can potentially spread malware. I apologize to anyone who sent me one of those messages because I don\u2019t share and, in fact, I delete them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I\u2019m so thankful I know my Father and I know the blessings in my life come straight from Him and not because I forwarded a particular message. I think we\u2019ve misunderstood what faith is and why God blesses us. Faith is a deep conviction that no matter what situation we’re facing, God is with us and will take care of us. When we contrive ways to achieve God\u2019s blessings, aside from what His Word tells us, we are transferring our faith in God to faith in that chain or meme or a good-luck charm.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We all want to live blessed lives and experience the promises and blessings of God. We want to live free from sickness and disease, our relationships thriving, debts paid, and we are blessing others. But many Christians struggle with how to take hold of these blessings. In the Bible, God gives us the key repeatedly to unlocking His blessings. That key is delighting in the Lord. Psalm 112:1 says \u201cBlessed are those who fear the Lord, who delights greatly in His commandments.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
God is the source of ALL blessings. He isn\u2019t genie in a bottle who appears to grant us three wishes in life. No, no, no. God is so much more. He is the One Who was, Who is and Who is to come (Revelation 1:8). He is the Source from whom all things — including you and me — were created. God is THE BLESSER, and blessing originated from Him. \u201cEvery good and perfect gift is from Him\u201d (James 1:17). God has a BLESSING plan for us to experience everything He promises, but we must recognize that the choice to be blessed is ours. \u201cDeuteronomy 30:19 says: \u201cToday I have given you the choice between life and death, between blessings and cursings. I call on heaven and earth to witness the choice you make. Oh, that you would choose life, so that you and your descendants might live!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So, we have a choice. Do we want to be blessed and live? Or be cursed and die? We must choose. We can\u2019t say, \u201cWell, I haven\u2019t made my mind up about God or that command yet. I\u2019ll make my decision later.” If we haven\u2019t chosen life, we aren\u2019t experiencing the fullness of abundant blessings God has promised us. We choose by making a conscious decision to honor God and obey His commands. We choose to delight in Him and His ways. That is the key to unlocking THE BLESSING of God in our life. The next time you\u2019re tempted to pass along a chain message to get a blessing \u2013 you might pass along this message about where our blessings actually come from!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Ever have someone send you a chain letter or private FB message requesting you \u201cforward this message and you\u2019ll be blessed\u201d? Or maybe you were promised a special blessing if you\u2019d just type \u201cAmen\u201d or share with your friends? I love the thoughts of special blessings \u2013 but I think we\u2019ve missed the point of…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13273,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[18806,18797,18804,18805,1],"tags":[18801,18800,18796,837,18803,18791,18535,267,18790,8007,18802,18799],"class_list":["post-13272","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blessed-is-the-man","category-chain-letter","category-chain-message","category-malware","category-uncategorized","tag-blessed-are-those","tag-blessed-is-the-man","tag-blessing-plan","tag-blessings","tag-blessings-and-cursings","tag-chain-letter","tag-choice","tag-faith","tag-forward-this-message","tag-genie-in-a-bottle","tag-good-luck-charm","tag-malware"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13272","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13272"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13272\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13275,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13272\/revisions\/13275"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/13273"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13272"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13272"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13272"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}