A recent headline caught my attention. SC Man Gets $763,000 in Unclaimed Money. The money came from the earnings of stock his father had purchased. It lay unclaimed since his father’s death fifteen years ago. I immediately went to the State Treasury site hoping I had some unclaimed money—no such luck. I thought about this Sunday morning during the worship service when we were singing about all the blessings Christ provided for us. I wondered how many unclaimed blessings were waiting for me that I knew nothing about. But, at the same moment, red flags popped up in my mind. The concept of ‘blessing’ has been hijacked by the Prosperity Gospel and misdefined to the point people think blessing is synonymous with money.
More than once through the years, I’ve been guilty of throwing the baby out with the bathwater concerning other flesh driven doctrines. This does eliminate deviant teaching, but this approach also robs us of any truth we could discover with correct biblical interpretation. Since the beginning, God has desired to bless His people. Blessings are the central focus of His covenant relationships with both Israel in the Old Testament and Christians under the New Covenant in Christ. However, He never promised wealth in either covenant. Correcting the error and taking hold of the truth begins with a biblical definition of blessing.
In its simplest form, blessing in the Old Testament meant the reception of God’s favor, which resulted in joy, success, and prosperity. This definition brings us to another hijacked word which is probably the most misdefined and misused word in Christianity today—prosperity. People associate it with financial wealth and the abundance of material possessions without a full understanding of the word. The Hebrew word for prosperity is shalom and the biblical meaning is far broader that just material wealth. It meant completeness, soundness, welfare, peace, and wholeness of life in body, soul, and spirit. Those who limit God’s blessings and prosperity to only financial and material wealth, miss an entire realm of blessings directed toward the whole person. The Old Testament covenant for God’s blessing was contingent on obedience to the Law. “Now it shall be, if you diligently obey the LORD your God, being careful to do all His commandments . . . All these blessings will come upon you (Deut 28:1, 2).
In contrast, the New Covenant grounds blessings in Christ’s finished work. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ (Eph 1:3). The emphasis of NT blessings focuses on the spiritual rather than on the material. The word literally means happy or blissful from a self-contained joy and not from outside resources. Jesus began His ministry by giving the Beatitudes in the Sermon of the Mount. Conservative teachers call this the third giving of the Law. The first came at Mt. Sini; the second in Deuteronomy forty years later as Israel prepared to enter the Promised Land. Jesus restated the Law based on grace that would result from His death and resurrection. Nine times, He declared people blessed that you won’t find in the Who’s Who Directory (Matt 5:3-11): the poor in spirit, those who mourn, those who are insulted and persecuted, etc. Some of the happiest people I’ve meet around the world never had a bank account, a car, a closet filled with clothes, and their house was constructed from straw, mud, and cow manure. What they possessed was God’s blessing of wholeness, peace, and joy from the Holy Spirit from within.
An essential key to living happy in His blessing and prosperity is contentment. The definition of contentment overlaps with the meaning of blessing. It is inward self-sufficiency, as opposed to the desire for or the lack of outward things; it denotes a mind satisfied with what one already possesses. Paul had achieved a place of contentment, Not that I speak from want, for I have learned to be content in whatever circumstances I am (Philp 4:11). Paul had been poor and rich; he had been hungry and satisfied and had an abundance and suffered need. Yet, he was content because he possessed an inward self-sufficiency because Christ was in him. Contentment never comes from the possession of external things. If you equate blessings to material possessions without contentment, it becomes easy to cross over into greed. Too many people today never enjoy what they have, because they are too busy seeking more.
Note just a few spiritual blessings we have. God has forgiven our sins; He credits us with the righteousness; He gave us the Holy Spirit; He empowers us to overcome the enemy; He gave us eternal life and hundreds more if not thousands of blessings. This week keep a piece of paper or note pad and as you see or think about your blessings, write them down. You will have much to praise God for next Sunday. The Holy Spirit might even show you other available blessings that you have never claimed. All believers are a blessed and prosperous people.
Sustaining Word for the Week: Count your blessings, name them one by one, see what God has done! There are plenty more. Don’t leave them unclaimed. Enjoy the ones you have.