Blessings

I have been intrigued by this idea of God's blessing lately. I started this year reading "The Prayer of Jabez". But something new caught my eye as I read again. In the verse it says "Bless me indeed". The word indeed in this verse is the same word for the word bless (barak in Hebrew). So Jabez is asking God to bless him twice. He is in essence begging God to bless him. What an interesting thought.

I don't think our current church culture understands this idea of being blessed by God. We tend to minimized it by associating blessing with being meek or weak in spirit or any of the Beattitudes. (Which, if you are interested, do a New Testament word study on the word blessed. You may surprised at what you find! I know I was!) Or we tend to associate it with greed and material blessings. Are we really that small minded or do we think God is? When in fact blessings are something God asks us to ask him. It is not a negative thing. It is a GOOD thing!

And here I go asking that same question again. Why are we limiting God in our lives? He is saying, 'Here take this good thing (whatever it may be) and do good with it.' The catch is, God is the ultimate gentleman, he won't force anything on us. We must ask him, and maybe even beg him. And then ask him to open your eyes to the blessings around you.