There are signs all
around us of what is blessed by God.
Since early in my walk with God I have used Psalms 1 as sort of a
measuring rod to what is and what isn’t blessed by God.
Psalms
1 NASB
How blessed
is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked,
Nor stand in the
path of sinners,
Nor sit in the seat of scoffers! 2 But his delight is in the law of the Lord,
And in His law
he meditates day and night. 3 He
will be like a tree firmly
planted by streams of water,
Which yields its fruit in its season
And its leaf
does not wither;
And in whatever he does, he prospers. 4 The wicked are not so,
But they are like chaff which the
wind drives away. 5 Therefore
the wicked will not stand in the judgment,
Nor sinners in the assembly of the
righteous. 6 For the Lord
knows the way of the righteous,
But the way of the wicked will perish.
I’d say that is a
pretty clear word on being blessed. My
desire is to be blessed and a blessing.
No, being blessed is not for personal gain. It is for connection to God, success in life
and the ability to be able to help others be blessed. If you dig deeper, you will find a tie between
John 10:10 and the “abundant life” that Jesus mentioned and the “blessed man”
of Psalms 1.
The person who is
blessed stays away from the wrong places and the wrong people. They don’t take the counsel of wicked people
and are not found following the advise of the wrong people in the way they
live. The blessed guy won’t be found standing
where all the wrong stuff is happening or chiming in with conversations that
are wrong.
The words and
actions of the blessed man are based on the fact that this person has chosen to
be firmly rooted in God, and their life is demonstrating this fact by the fruit
or results coming from their choices.
Prospering isn’t only about money.
It is about all kinds of blessings.
Wicked people are
cut off the chapter says, but blessed people find themselves standing with and
protected by God. Take a minute and look
at your words and actions. Are you
looking more like the blessed man or the wicked man?
One experience or
setting stands out in my mind. I was
working in Honduras in 1999 and hiking with a small mission team behind the
Loma de la Luz hospital property right on the Caribbean coast near Balfate,
Colon, Honduras. We followed a stream up
a small valley. This was not a difficult
hike, but it was beautiful and seemed to be untouched nature. As I leaned on a tree I noticed that it’s
limbs were spread out across the water.
The trunk of the tree was right beside the stream, and it looked as if
the roots went in several directions and were deep.
It was like God
said, “this is the tree I was talking about in Psalms 1 that is firmly planted
by waters.” Reflecting on that tree then
and even now I am resolved to be like tree.
I desire for my life and my family and my church to be planted deep in
God. I want our roots to go so deep in
to the truth and life of God that nothing can make us fail.
Take some time
today to read through and think about these verses. May your life and mine demonstrate what a
blessed life really looks like. May we
allow God to guide and provide, to grow and strengthen us so there is no way we
can miss the blessings He has in store for us.
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