Let’s look at the flip side of life’s trials: being blessed. Like trials, we can be blessed a lot, a little bit, or not at all. There are certain truths about being blessed. Blessings come into our lives because God caused them, not by accident or coincidence. God’s blessings are not arbitrary or random. They come into our lives as a reward from God for right living and are intended by God to motivate us to obey Him and live for Him. There are over a hundred verses on being blessed by God in the Bible, and they all are conditional.

James 1:25 But one who looks intently at the perfect law, the law of liberty, and abides by it, not having become a forgetful hearer but an effectual doer, this man will be blessed in what he does.

John 13:17 If you know these things, you are blessed if you do them.

Luke 11:28 But He said, “On the contrary, blessed are those who hear and obey the word of God.”

Some don’t make clear distinctions between redemption and sanctification in their writing or teaching. Our salvation from hell to heaven is by grace. No works are required; we are not worthy of the forgiveness of our sins and adoption into the family of God. But now that we are children of God, He treats us as sons and daughters and is always working to make us mature and grown up like Jesus in character. For growth to happen, we must cooperate, choose, and act in specific ways. God gives us strength, but we must still make the choices and make the effort. He motivates us to do the right things by blessing us or not.

There are different kinds of blessings in life. There is the physical blessing you get for faithfully changing the oil in your car, good health when you eat right and exercise, and financial blessings when you follow good financial principles. Probably the greatest blessings in life are joy, peace, strength, wisdom, healthy relationships with people and with God, and accomplishing something with your life that really matters. The conditions set forth by God to experience those last seven blessings are clearly spelled out in the Bible.

A major goal of my teaching and preaching ministry is to show what we need to do to be blessed by God. The number one discipline to be blessed by God is to read the Bible, the Word of God, seeking Him and seeking His will for our lives. There are dozens of clear blessings for those who love and read the Bible faithfully, just in Psalms 119.

Psalms 119:165 Those who love Your law have great peace,
And nothing causes them to stumble.

As I said a couple blogs ago, one of the worst things we can do is to be judgmental of others about their apparent blessings or trials in life. To do that is a very good way to lose blessings and to experience some discipline from the Lord.

You choose; blessings from God or trials.