I really dislike the word blessed.

You won’t hear me use it, except in very specific circumstances.

I have grown tired of how Christians have overused the word. For example:

“I got into the college I wanted to get into/got the job I wanted/got a new house or car/got pregnant/got a raise/grew an abundance of produce in my garden… I’m so blessed!”
Or perhaps, a sunny, filtered Instagram photo on the beach with the caption: #blessed
Or an elderly man in church greets you with a handshake and “God bless you.”

Blessed.

You know when you say a word or write it out too many times and it starts sounding or looking really weird? It’s like the letters and sounds become disjointed from the word’s meaning and become space-fillers rather than meaningful interactions with others.

Blessed.

Is it starting to look weird to you?

Blessed.

That’s how I feel about how we use blessed as Christians. Do we even know what the word means?

We use it as a codename for some great abundance or prosperity that we have experienced, or maybe as a catchall to express some great joy or happy circumstance that we have experienced.

When I ask others what they mean by “being blessed,” I hear that God has rewarded them for some act of faithfulness or that God has given them a divine gift.

“Blessings” almost always refer to some physical possession, including people.

The most common definition I have heard in churches is that blessings are “God’s divine favour and protection.” I don’t disagree with this meaning; however, I feel that we have reduced the vastness of God’s divine favour to receiving material abundance.

What about the person who worked really, really hard but never attained the big promotion?

What about the young man or woman who struggles to pay for their university degree instead of receiving scholarships or having their degree paid for by their parents?

What about the woman who can’t conceive a child? Or the teenager who is pregnant?

Are any of these less blessed than the person who rises quickly to the top, the university student who coasted through school, or the woman who is married pregnant with her third child?

Our Western idea of blessing is tied to our ideas of money and success.

Somehow, we can’t fathom that the man on the street is just as blessed as we are. Instead, blessing is synonymous with prosperity.

And there, my friends, we have stumbled into the territory of the prosperity gospel, a heresy that says that faithful followers of Jesus will experience wealth, health, and business success.

The prosperity gospel is not biblical.

Jesus called his followers to leave their jobs in order to follow him. That’s right, they left their means of making money. Some of the disciples were, in fact, prosperous (Matthew the tax collector, for example), but Jesus told them to leave their wealth behind for the sake of following him.

Jesus himself was a poor man - first a carpenter from a backwoods town and then a travelling teacher who was supported with the funds of his followers. He instructed a rich man to sell all his possessions, give the money to the poor and follow him. He warned against accumulating and stockpiling wealth and possessions (see Luke 12:13-21 and Matt. 6:19-34). After all, none of it will last beyond this life.

Was Jesus, a wandering teacher dependent on the goodwill of others, not blessed?

Of course not!

So if blessing does not mean physical wealth or prosperity - and this includes your fancy car, house, and your perfect family - then what does it mean?

(As an aside, the prosperity gospel is a deception. No one’s life is perfect, regardless of how it looks to an outsider. I’d wager many people gush over how blessed they are to deflect attention from the ugly bits hidden inside their fancy car, home, or perfect-looking family. Those whose cars are rusted, whose homes are poor, and whose families are broken have no such “blessings” to claim. Their brokenness is obvious to others and they don’t (usually) pretend otherwise.)

Blessed: A Greek Lesson

The Greek word translated blessed in the Sermon on the Mount is makarios, which means to “become large or long.” More properly, it refers to God extending his benefits to us by his grace. Makarios is “equivalent to having God’s kingdom within one’s heart.” It means that satisfaction is dependent on God and not on oneself or one’s circumstances.

This is the very definition of the Christian life.

Christians are defined by God’s presence in their life.

We believe that the Holy Spirit lives with you, inside you, as a result of Christ’s death and resurrection.

We believe that God’s kingdom is present among us now.

The Gospel of Matthew records Jesus Christ declaring, “The kingdom of God is near,” and then begins his Sermon on the Mount, “Blessed are you…” (see Matt. 4:17 and Matt. 5:3-10).

Why are the people blessed?

They are blessed because God’s kingdom is near. They are blessed because Jesus is present. They are blessed when they follow in the way of Jesus because their words and actions reflect God’s redemptive kingdom.

God’s kingdom is here.

It is the way of life that Christians are called to - to live in love, kindness, gentleness, goodness, and all the fruit of the Spirit. Living in God’s kingdom means that we are actively taking part in God’s work here on the earth: we feed the hungry, take care of the sick and injured, help the helpless, provide homes for the homeless, and take care of the earth God has given us.

Let me be clear: God’s blessing of His presence in your life has nothing to do with whether you are participating in His kingdom work. Participating in this work is the way that we live in response to His generous gift of Himself.

The real blessing is God. That is His gift. We do nothing but receive this gift with open hands and share this blessing with the world.

God’s kingdom is also not yet.

Our world is still broken, despite our best efforts to heal it. The full restoration and redemption of our world will come one day; Jesus promises it. This is the Christian hope, that this world is not all that there is, but we anticipate a place where every sorrow and grief is laid to rest.

We are not blessed for what we have.

We are not blessed for what we do.

We are blessed because of what God did for us and still does for our world.

To be blessed is to sit in God’s grace, knowing that He has done everything necessary for our ultimate wellbeing. And I mean more than just physical wellbeing. The God of the Bible does not actually promise life to be easy. Instead, Jesus Christ told His disciples, “In this world you will have trouble.”

You will have trouble.

Why, then, do we expect life to be easy and glamourous? The lie of prosperity gospel is deception at its finest.

“But take heart! I have overcome the world.”

We don’t need to live in dejection either. Jesus has overcome the world. The outcome has been decided, the victory already won, though we are waiting for the full reality of this promise.

You are blessed, my friend.

Your blessedness is dependent on Jesus Christ, not on your circumstances.

Whether you have a six-figure job or are scraping to pay the bills, you are blessed.

Whether you have four children or have never conceived, you are blessed.

Whether you have a rustbucket or a shiny Corvette, you are blessed.

You are blessed.

In courage and in love,

Katelyn