God Bess You!

Have you ever wondered what people mean when they say, "God bless you" or " Have a blessed day?" Are they just saying or repeating something they learned in church or do they have a full understanding of what it means to be blessed.

One thing for certain, every time I look out at the traffic on I-395, I know I am blessed! I am blessed to be retired and not have to be stucked in all that traffice! What a blessing that is!

Let's look at what it means to be blessed. Taken from the Ancient Hebrew Research Center, the ancient Hebrew word "bless" means "barak," as seen in Genesis 12:2, which can also mean "kneel" a seen in Genesis 24:11. A related Hebrew word is "berakah" meaning a blessing or a gift or present. From this we can see the concrete meaning behind barak in the sense of a blessing. It is to bring a gift to another while kneeling out of respect. The extended meaning of this word is to do or give something of value to another. God "blesses" us by providing for our needs and we in turn "bless" God by giving him of ourselves as his servants."

The dictionary defines the word, "bless" as the following:

1) to praise, celebrate with praises;
2) to invoke blessings;
3) to consecrate a thing with solemn prayers
4) to ask God's blessing on a thing
5) to pray God to bless it to one's use
6) to cuse to prosper, to make happy
7) to bestow blessing on favoured of God

I think I like the last definition, "to bestow blessing on favoured of God. I was always taught that God bestows blessings on us so that we can be a blessing to others.

Another definititon I found of the word, "blessed" is happy,or wonderful; praiseworthy; bringing pleasure or divine favor. Divine favor meaning favor from God who is divine. So all my blessings were divine because I came into this world with nothing. God does not bring us into the world with money or wealth; some of us inherit wealth from our parents, but we didn't come here with it.

I love to 'google" words and I tried to search for "what does it mean to be "blessed" Oddly, nothing came up, but definitions. Maybe I don't use the best search engines, but I have a couple I use; I don't exhaust the internet, but I do go straight to the Word of God.

The concordance in my Bible led me to some Scriptures. I am not going to recite the entire book of Genesis, but in Genesis 5:2, it states that "God created them male and female and blessed them. " God told Abraham, the father of our faith, in Genesis 12:3, I will bless you, and whoever curses you, I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you." In Genesis 18:18, God tells Abraham, "you will surely become a great and powerful nation, and all nations on earth will be blessed through you."

It was always God's purpose to bless man; to provide and protect him.

Just a few other scriptures about God's purposes towards man:

Psalm 119:1 states, "Blessed are they whose ways are blameless, who walk according to the law of the Lord. God has expectations of us and we are to be a holy people, obedient to His word.

Psalm 119:2 goes on to say, "Blessed are those who keep his statues and seek Him with all their heart." God can be found if we seek Him with all our heart, and keep His commandments. We can't find God if we come to him with unclean hearts.

God reminds us that His yoke is easy; what He expects of us is just obedience, and obedience has its rewards and blessings. Just as we reward our earthly children when they are good; God also wants to reward us as His children.

The last Psalm 112:1 that stays on my heart, says, "Blessed is the man who fears the Lord, who finds great delight in His commands." I delight in His law; it is my desire to respect God for all that He has done in my life. We are to tell people how God has blessed us.

Thought for Today: If you respect God's blessings, you must revere Him, and gladly obey Him. God blesses us to be a blessing. Be a blessing to someone today.