Becoming Blessed

Being blessed is one of the major questions that the Scriptures seek to answer.  How is someone blessed?  What can I do to be blessed?   Unfortunately, the locus of blessing, the source of blessing is eschewed for a focus on the blessing itself and the discussion dissolves from God-praising to self-serving.  This is wrong and should be avoided at all cost.  The focus should never be on the blessing but on the blesser.  That being said, the question of blessing's cause still stands prominent in the hearts and lives of believers.

First of all, we are blessed by our obedience.  Proverbs and the Psalms are full of the language of blessing.  The "blessed" is held in stark contrast to the "wicked".  The wicked being the person/people who find no joy in the Lord.  The blessed being the person/people that find their joy in the Lord.  The major point made is that there is a distinct blessing in direct proportion to covenant obedience.  So, what is this blessing and how do we acquire it?  To be blessed is to delight in God and in His law (Psa. 1; 119).  This true blessing.  

When we are finding our strength and guidance in the Lord, we are blessed.  This means that we are delighting in Him and who He is.  Moreover, we are blessed by the Lord in that He has given a revelation of Himself to us and for us in the form of the Bible.  To find our joy and delight in that revelation: blessed.

Jesus' famous "Sermon on the Mount" also deals specifically with what determines blessing: character.   Those who are meek,  who are poor in spirit, who mourn, who hunger and thirst for righteousness, who are merciful, pure in heart, who are peacemakers, and those who are persecuted for righteousness, these are the determinants of blessing.  Because blessing is decided by character, it is not externally bestowed but internally determined.  Therefore, blessing, for Christians, is a matter of transformation into the character of the blessed.

Simply put, blessing deals with God's hand of favor.  The blessed person is that person whom God has endowed with favor.  favor has many implications but it should be understood primarily in terms of God's hand of providence and benevolence.  He cares for those who delight in Him. This is not to say that the wicked person, the sinner that is ambivalent or indignant to the Lord is not still sustained by God from moment to moment.  Rather, it is the blessed whom God has chosen to bestow His special blessing upon, namely, the riches to be found in His Son.  

It is when we find our utmost and whole joy in the Lord and in Jesus that we are truly blessed.  Strangely enough, when this is happening, the Holy Spirit works in our lives, transforming us into the blessed character.  Becoming blessed is a real and attainable goal to be pursued.  Aspiring to delight in the Lord is the pursuit of the blessed.  The fact that He has revealed Himself for us to seek is the blessing of the blessed.  It all comes from Him.  To begin becoming blessed is to believe this basic truth.