He Calls Us Blessed

So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.  God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it."  Genesis 1:27-28

Then the angel said to me, “Write this: Blessed are those who are invited to the wedding supper of the Lamb!” And he added, “These are the true words of God.” Revelation 19:9

“Look, I am coming soon! Blessed is the one who keeps the words of the prophecy written in this scroll.”  Revelation 22:7

I use three scriptures today to show how from beginning to end, God has bestowed His blessings upon His people.  He created us to be blessed, He invites us to live as though we are blessed, and He expects us to follow through on His blessing.

Blessed is not a word we use often in our every day speech.  We say "Bless You!" when someone sneezes, or when we are given a special honor or reward, we might say, "I have been blessed."  When we use the word in this context, it means, that we have been favored among others.  And of course, that may be true.

But true blessedness has nothing to do with material goods.  We have ALL been blessed (just look at the above verses) and if we think it is about STUFF we are missing out!

To be blessed means to be consecrated; sacred; holy; sanctified.  In other words, when God blessed us, He made us holy.  He made us sacred, special.  Not by virtue of anything we can do.  He gave us His holiness so that we may be holy.

We are set apart for something special!  We were created to live special, holy lives.  How do we know if we can do it?  Because He created us to do it - with Him, through Him, by Him.  That was how He intended us to live when He made us.

Don't let the devil convince you that you are nothing, incapable of accomplishing anything, unable to achieve holiness.   That's a LIE.  We are more than able - we are called to be conquerors:   "No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.  For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord."  Romans 8:37-38

Only because of Him are we blessed.  He didn't give us His blessing just for us to throw it away.  So today, lived BLESSED!