The Anatomy of a Blessing (Replay)

Good Morning Family.  I hope you all are have a good day so far.  Today, is a replay from back in November of 2006.  Every now and then, I think we need to be reminded that there is work that we must do and that we cannot always sit back and wait on God to fix it.  Sometimes, He provides us with the parts to solve our issues.  We just have to be diligent enough to put the parts together to make a whole.  A blessing is a blessing no matter how it comes and we need to be ready to recognize it when it gets here.

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November 30, 2006

Hello Fam.

Sorry for getting WFTD out so late.  Without further adieu, let's hop to it.  Through out the days of our lives we tend to toss around phrases like "Lord bless me with...", "Be blessed", "Pour me out a blessing", "Bless you", etc.  It almost seems nowadays that we toss around the word just as loosely as the word Love is tossed around (which is an entirely different discussion in itself).

However, have you ever really sat down and thought about what a blessing is, what it can be, and how much of a roll you play in the midst of it?  Let's lay some ground work first:

blessing (noun):  "A blessing is a gift of God's favor, or a prayer that asks for God's protection and care."

In the 6th Chapter of the book of Numbers, the Lord speaks to Moses and gives him instructions to pass on to Aaron so that he will know how to bless the Israelites:

"(22) And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying, (23) Speak unto Aaron and unto his sons, saying, On this wise ye shall bless the children of Israel, saying unto them, (24) The LORD bless thee, and keep thee: (25) The LORD make his face shine upon thee, and be gracious unto thee: (26) The LORD lift up his countenance upon thee, and give thee peace. (27) And they shall put my name upon the children of Israel, and I will bless them."

What this did was put the Lord first in the Israelites face and made them realize that He was their everything and not man, graven images, or small gods (with a little "g").  So to set the blessing up, you must first put God the front of your life and stay positioned towards him.  Remember when Peter walked on water briefly, but took his eye off Jesus and he began to sank?  Same idea here.  God is at the forefront.

Now that's established let's take the blessing itself.  I would like break down blessings into two categories (by all means I do not claim these to be finite categories and I'm sure there are other ways of looking at it, but this is how the Holy Spirit has given it to me.  Maybe you can expand on what has been provided in your study):

1. It's a blessing for you, so that you may be a blessing to someone else (batteries included version)
   
2. Blessing you with opportunity (The Blessing Kit - some assembly required)
   

See, in the first instance, God blesses you with what you need and gives you an abundance or how we like to say "more blessings than we can handle".  In a situation like this, God knows how much to give and to whom to give it too.  If you are a greedy person, God can't bless you with overabundance because you are thinking about self (which you can't do anyway if you follow Christ - we are to deny self).  But, when you are abundantly blessed, you can then use your blessings to bless someone else.

Then you have the second instance which is one of opportunity.  Not all the time will God give you a turn-key blessing.  Example:  If I am taking a class and I'm struggling, God can bless me with a tutor who knows how to address all the areas I need help in.  However, the tutor is not going to do the work for me because ultimately I'm the one who has to learn the information and take the test.  No one can walk in your shoes better than you can.  What people fail to realize is that the blessing of opportunity can lead to the overabundance which means you have to bless someone else.  So you can look at this as your Blessing Kit.  You have to put in a little extra work to see it through.

So, that's the anatomy of a blessing.  It's pretty simple and probably not the complete breakdown but something to think about.  It's great when God moves and places all the desires of your heart in front of you.  But don't be discouraged, by having to put in a little extra effort to be blessed.  Remember there is no testimony without a test and if God brought you to it, he'll bring you through it.

With that said, have a Blessed Day! :-) -------------- snip ---------------


Regards,

Antoine E. Hall

Blog:      http://toinebo.blogspot.com
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"It is God who arms me with strength and makes my way perfect." - 2 Samuel 22:33