Blessed to Bless

What do you count as blessings in your life? Your health? Your freedom? Your family? Your friends? Your portfolio? Your 401k? Your investments? Your house? Your food? We can count a lot of things in our lives as blessings, but what do we do when we recognize all these blessings? Maybe we’ll pray a prayer of thanks to the Lord, perhaps we are diligent to tithe, but do we ever think of our blessings and feel a sense of entitlement, as if we deserve or somehow earned those blessings? Certainly you’ve earned the money you’ve made at your job, and the Scriptures would not disagree with that.

“When people work, their wages are not a gift, but something they have earned. But people are counted as righteous, not because of their work, but because of their faith in God who forgives sinners.” (Romans 4:4-5)

“God saved you by his grace when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God. Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it.” (Ephesians 2:8-9)

When we refer to something as a blessing from the Lord, we can easily think of that blessing as something that we have earned because of our obedience or our good choices. As Justin Camp once put it, “How could we ever conclude that we’ve been blessed simply so that we may live in comfort and security and isolation?” The answer is selfishness. We can think inwardly and believe that we have somehow earned what we call blessings. We are blessed to have a roof over our heads, a house to live in—well, you bought that house with the hard-earned money you got from your job, and you got that job from the hard work you did in college. You are blessed with good health, but you exercise and take your vitamins. We can justify anything and sometimes we can justify our blessings as being for our benefit, but we are not blessed so that we can sit back in comfort—we are blessed to bless others and we need look no further for proof of this than God’s blessing to Abram.

“Now the Lord said to Abram, ‘Go from your country and your kindred and your father's house to the land that I will show you. And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing.’” (Genesis 12:1-2)

God said that He would bless Abram so that Abram would be a blessing. We are temporary residents in a foreign land. God’s blessings are not so that we can live in comfort here. When God blesses His people it is so we can be a blessing to others, accurately representing Him.

“He comforts us in all our troubles so that we can comfort others. When they are troubled, we will be able to give them the same comfort God has given us.” (2 Corinthians 1:4)

“Don’t be selfish; don’t try to impress others. Be humble, thinking of others as better than yourselves. Don’t look out only for your own interests, but take an interest in others, too. You must have the same attitude that Christ Jesus had.” (Philippians 2:3-5)

We are able to bless others when we can humble ourselves and think of others first. When we look out for the interests of others, it is easier for us to be a blessing rather than to horde God’s blessings for ourselves. God comforts us so that we can comfort others. Living for Christ, being one of His followers, is about bringing Him to people who do not yet know Him. When God blesses you, think of others and return those blessings to those around you. Know that we are not blessed so that we may live in comfort, for this is not our home. Rather, we are blessed to bless others. 

May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.

—Redeemed