What does it mean to be blessed?
We all want a good life. We all want a life that is blessed and successful.
Almost everyone on earth is searching for that, and we all have our own way of attaining the life we want. Some people look for happiness and fulfillment in material possessions. Others try to find happiness through gaining success and fame. And others search for fulfillment through relationships.
But rather than following the paths of the world around us, Psalm 119:2 says that true happiness and fulfillment come from obeying God. Since God is the creator and ruler of the universe, He certainly knows what is best for us. Following God’s guidance and direction for our life is the only way we will find true fulfillment. And the writer of Psalm 119 says that those who seek God with all their heart will be blessed.
A blessed life is a happy and fulfilled life, but it’s also a life that doesn’t find ultimate happiness and fulfillment through anything on this earth.
A truly blessed life comes through God.
You were created to enjoy a relationship with God. The more we seek God and desire Him, the more we will find a truly blessed life, because true blessing comes from spending time with God.
His Pain, Our Gain
Isaiah 53 is a stunning chapter in the Bible—in what is now commonly referred to as the “Old Testament.”
Approximately 700 years before Jesus walked the earth, Isaiah prophesied about a suffering servant who would also, somehow and in some way, be exalted. A coming Savior, a future Redeemer, the long-awaited Messiah—whose death would ultimately bring life.
A portion of Isaiah 53 says this:
“But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed.”
Isaiah 53:5 NIV
So, who was this man who would be pierced, crushed, and wounded because of someone else’s sins? Whose undeserved punishment would be the catalyst for healing? Whose life would be given as an offering—so that others might live?
Jesus Christ not only fits the description of the suffering servant who paid the ultimate price to buy His people back, redeem them, and set them free—He ...
“Go to now, ye rich men, weep and howl for your miseries that shall come upon you. Your riches are corrupted, and your garments are motheaten. Your gold and silver is cankered; and the rust of them shall be a witness against you, and shall eat your flesh as it were fire. Ye have heaped treasure together for the last days. Behold, the hire of the labourers who have reaped down your fields, which is of you kept back by fraud, crieth: and the cries of them which have reaped are entered into the ears of the Lord of sabaoth. Ye have lived in pleasure on the earth, and been wanton; ye have nourished your hearts, as in a day of slaughter. Ye have condemned and killed the just; and he doth not resist you. Be patient therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord. Behold, the husbandman waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth, and hath long patience for it, until he receive the early and latter rain. Be ye also patient; stablish your hearts: for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh. Grudge...