What it Looks Like to Be #Blessed...

I was wading through Psalm 115 just the other morning.
It begins with heart-felt words that I pray often:

I truly desire that my life glorify God...it is, after all, the purpose behind my existence (Isaiah 43:7).

Psalm 115 also reminds me of the kind of PERSONAL, LOVING God I serve - there is NONE like Him (verses 3-9).

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My God acts, listens, speaks, moves on my behalf. 

I needed these reminders.

I have a women's event coming up this weekend, where I'll be sharing.

May God be glorified (!), but for Him to do so, I am desperate for His personal intervention on my behalf.

I still wonder "why me?"

I can hardly get out a cohesive sentence most days.

Those reminders were great timing. In fact, God's ability to bring a comforting Word is always perfectly placed.

And, His strength is also made perfect in our weaknesses. This, immediately, went through my mind:

Then, Psalm 115 surprised me.

The Psalmist actually confirmed my thoughts with these words:

The Lord has remembered us; 

He will bless us.

Even the Psalmist would have hash-tagged "blessed" on his Facebook account; and, he goes on to word-that-out.

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At this point, I was reminded of a message I heard this past July on that one word - blessed.

In our world today there are a lot of ideas about what it means to be blessed. More often, than not, it is pointed at as "luck." Luck has nothing to do with blessing...

The speaker had done an actual Facebook search using the hash-tag. So, I did the same.

The following things came up (these were the first 7), along with pictures, of course:
*our perfect family reunion - #blessed
*such a busy year thus far - #blessed
*250 new Facebook friends - #blessed
*brunch with the girlfriends - #blessed
*new super satellite TV - #blessed
*saw Lebron James on beach - #blessed

I stopped at this one: Sara Underwood's new boobs (one with nature), we think they call this - #blessed  (Oooooooooooooooooo Kkkkkkkkkkkkkk, and, sorry, there will be no picture to post here).

In our world, we consider ourselves blessed if we are able to gather more possessions, or prestige, or power, or people, or if we can manipulate our circumstances to our advantage. Then, we might say: #blessed. But:

This is not what the Psalmist meant.
It's not what New Testament writers mean, either.

The two words used for our being blessed have two different connotations.
--- the first is to be spoken well of...to be honored with words and responses
--- the second is to experience a deep sense of peace and security in knowing God's validation of me (did you read the Ephesians passage?); a sense of happiness, or an attitude of contentment found in being a Jesus-follower.

As Jesus did most times, He looked at life through upside-down-perspectacles.
He also gave us a list of what #blessed really looks like in Matthew 5.

Want to receive happy?
Here are some of Scripture's suggestions (Psalm 115 coupled with Matthew 5):

⇨ Seek God's glory for the sake of His steadfast love and faithfulness.

⇨ Recognize God's ALIVENESS (His personal responses to His children, His compassion, His care). He is NOT like any other god.

⇨ Trust Him (yield and obey). 

"Blessed are those who hear the word of God and keep it." 

(Lk 11:28)

⇨ Be in AWE of Him (which requires paying attention, seeking Him, hungering and thirsting for Him).

⇨ Maintain an attitude of "want-to-be-more-like-Him" - His mercy, His meekness, His pure-heartedness, His peace making.

⇨ Develop a daily Thanksgiving mind-set, rejoicing in all things (this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus!).

I am truly #blessed - in the spiritual sense of the Word - in Christ!
And, once again, I will never look at that word the same again...