Have you ever stopped to think about what it means to be #blessed? The word we so often use (and misuse) – do we know what it really means?

We often equate a good state of wellbeing to being #blessed. Good results. #blessed. Good career. #blessed. Good relationships. #blessed.

While all these hold some truth because God is the Giver of all good gifts (James 1:17), they don’t really paint an accurate picture of what being truly blessed in life looks like. While all these are indeed blessings, if these do not point us back to the Blesser, are we truly #blessed?

Being blessed in life is when we have the Blesser, not merely His blessings.

Look at God the Father, the Blesser from which all blessings come. Look at the life of Jesus the Son, sinless and perfect. He weathered pain, grief, betrayal and ultimately death – and yet He calls this the abundant and blessed life (John 10:10, Matt 5:1-12), the portion of all who pick up their crosses and follow Him. It’s paradoxical; it doesn’t seem to make sense, does it?

He weathered pain, grief, betrayal and ultimately death – and yet He calls this the abundant and blessed life, the portion of all who pick up their crosses and follow Him.

Reading deeper into the Beatitudes in Matthew 5 helped me see how Jesus’ perspective of being #blessed holds so much truth and relevance for us today.

Every verse from Matthew 5:3-12 carries a Blesser-Blessed relationship. The blessed are truly blessed because of the presence of the Blesser. Without the Blesser, there is no blessing and no way of being #blessed.

The poor in spirit are blessed because it is the Blesser who promised them the Kingdom of heaven. Those who mourn are blessed because it is the Blesser who promised comfort. Those who hunger and thirst for righteousness are blessed because it is the Blesser who promised to fill them. Those who are persecuted “because of me” are blessed because it is the Blesser who promised them great reward in heaven.

I see the theme of blessedness flowing from the Blesser again in Psalm 16, one of my favourite Psalms.

I say to the Lord, “You are my Lord; apart from you I have no good thing.”
Lord, you alone are my portion and my cup; you make my lot secure.
The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places; surely I have a delightful inheritance. (Psalm 16:2, 5-6)

It is the Blesser, not the blessings, that makes us #blessed.

To me, being #blessed is about humbly realising that Jesus is my Lord, and that apart from Him I have no worth or anything good.

Being #blessed entails trusting that the life I am living is the portion, cup and lot given to me by my Blesser, and this alone means it is the most blessed and abundant life I could ever dream of living.

Being Blessed entails holding on to the Blesser and trusting that the boundary lines in my life – no matter the season, no matter the ups and downs – have fallen for me in pleasant places because He has mapped them out for me.

And so every true believer’s life is #blessed, because we have the presence of the Blesser. You are deeply blessed, whether you feel it or not, and whether your circumstances suggest otherwise. It is the Blesser, not the blessings, that makes us #blessed.

God’s greatest blessing always rests in God himself. When we have that, we are truly #blessed.