Blessed to be Empowered
The word “blessed” has been an odd word for me. I’ve always known it was a “Christian” word, a biblical term that seemed to indicate God’s favor on a person or people. As I grew up and started moving around adults in church, I would hear it used as a response to how the day was or how life was going. A lot of times, I would find myself or someone else using it as either a catch-all for “I’m doing swell” or as the Christian’s passive-aggressive way of letting someone know to mind their own business.
To others, it seems to indicate when God gives you things (mostly material things) or does something for you that you don’t deserve. It’s overuse has made it a throwaway word, of little or no significance other than to help point out who might be tenuously attached to something spiritual. “I’m blessed”, “You’re such a blessing”, or “Have a blessed day,” are candy phrases for a lot of people – sweet but with little nutritional value for the mind, heart or soul. That always struck me as strange since God seemed to put such an importance on it throughout His Word (the word or a variant is used several hundred times over the course of the Bible).
So when I heard a message recently over the Beatitudes (Matthew 5:1-12), I buckled in for a lesson on God’s favor (i.e. gift giving) for the broken down, the humble, the persecuted. But what the pastor instead talked about was how the word “blessed” didn’t just mean feeling happy or receiving something material, nor should it just be used as that not-so-subtle way of letting others know you’re a Christian (something I find myself guilty of doing a lot!). The word “blessed” meant being empowered. In the Beatitudes, Jesus is telling his disciples that they will be empowered by God when they take on the posture of humility, showing mercy, being peacemakers, and even being persecuted for following him. The blessings aren’t passive things, they’re active engagement from God with us. And that really changed how I saw the Beatitudes. These verses encouraged me that God actively gives strength to His children when they choose to pursue righteousness, to be merciful, to humble themselves and affect peace instead of strife. Yes, there is the promise that our rewards will be in heaven, but the empowerment to endure, overcome, persevere, and have joy through trials and celebration comes while we are still on earth. That my Jesus spoke that blessing for his disciples, both then and now, is so powerful to me.
Our family had a real crisis this week. An accident caused a lot of uncertainty, anxiety, fear, and tension as we tried to get a grip of what happened. But through it all, I felt the peace of God over me, the certainty that He was handling it if I would just let Him, and the presence of his strength through the interceding prayers of the wonderful people in my community who reached out and prayed and kept in touch. This in turn gave me the strength I needed to be the helping hand in time of need. That experience showed me that, far above receiving material things from God, having His empowering presence in my life to support, comfort, strengthen, correct, and grow is the real blessing. Not that we can’t be grateful for and enjoy the material things we are given or the moments of happiness we experience. But material things and feelings soon lose their charm and pass away. God’s uplifting, strengthening hand on my life will always endure. That, to me, is living blessed.
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