Welcome to the In Touch podcast with Charles Stanley for Thursday, July 17th. Christians use the word bless a lot. But do you really understand what it means? Stay with us as we go deeper to explore what it truly means to be blessed.
Well, the words bless and blessing are sort of household words among Christians, and oftentimes we'll say, well, bless you. Or we'll talk about how God has blessed someone else. Or we pray and say that we're going to ask God to bless you. And oftentimes we use those phrases without even stopping to think what they mean. What does it mean to say to someone, bless you?
Or what does it mean to say that we bless God for something?
So, I want you to turn to the 81st Psalm. And when you first read this, you'll think: well, how do you get that out of this?
Well, it's all here. And if you look at this 81st Psalm, beginning in uh verse 8 through 16. Let me tell you what's happening before. And that is the psalmist that's rejoicing and talking about God's blessing and so forth. And then he talks about the fact that God has redeemed, and that is, delivered the nation of Israel, the Hebrew children out of Egyptian bondage.
And he says in verse 6, I relieved their shoulder of the burden, hands freed from the baskets, called them in trouble, rescued them, answered there in the place of thunder, proved them at the waters of Meribar. And then he says. Hear, O my people, and I will admonish you. O Israel, if you would listen to me, Let there be no strange God among you, nor shall you worship any foreign god. I, the Lord, am your God.
who brought you up from the land of Egypt. Open your mouth wide, and I will fill it. But my people didn't listen to me to my voice, and Israel did not obey me.
so I gave them over to the stubbornness of their heart. to walk in their own devices. Oh, that my people would listen to me. that Israel would walk in my ways. I would quickly subdue their enemies, and turn my hand against their adversaries.
Those who hate the Lord would pretend obedience to Him, and their time of punishment would be for ever. But I would feed you with the finest of the wheat, And with the honey from the rock I would satisfy you. Here's what he's saying. God chose the best for the nation of Israel. He said the finest of the wheat.
Honey from the rock I will satisfy you. Listen. Finest wheat, sweetest honey, and he says, I would satisfy you. It's the will of God to satisfy his children. And so what we have to ask is this, what determines What determines the measure of the blessing of God in your life and mine?
So Let's look first of all at the whole issue here of the use of this word and what it means. And when it's referring to God, for example, look, if you will, in the 103rd Psalm. And there are many Psalms you and I could turn to because It's all through the Psalms, especially. When the psalmist says in this 103rd Psalm and beginning in the very first verse, Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless His holy name. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all of His benefits.
And you come down toward the end and the twenty-first verse. Bless the Lord, all you, His host. Bless the Lord, all you the works of His. And so what does it mean to bless the Lord When God is sinless. When He's committed no sin and He's perfect and doesn't need anything.
Well, to bless Him means that we honor Him, we adore Him, we recognize who He is, we recognize what He's done for us, and we pledge our allegiance and our loyalty. It speaks of our devotion to Him. And so we do that in praise, in worship, in singing, in giving thanks. What are we doing? We are certainly blessing the Lord.
So when somebody says, well, how can you bless God who needs nothing? We bless Him by our praise and worship, adoration, and our thanksgiving. Then, what about the whole issue of the use when it says we think in terms of when God says He's going to bless someone else?
Well, turn, if you will, to the 12th chapter of Genesis, and I want you to notice in this chapter that God here. Is blessing Abraham, and I just want you to see what he says, and then let's think in terms of what does God mean when he says he's going to bless someone else. He says beginning in verse 1, Now the LORD said to Abram, Go forth from your country, and from your relatives, and from your father's house, to the land which I will show you. And I will make you a great nation.
Now listen to this. And I will be. Bless you. What is the name of that? and make your name great.
And so you shall be a blessing. And I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you, I will accurse. And all the families of the earth will be blessed as a result of what I'm doing in your life.
So when God speaks of blessing someone, here's what he's saying: I'm going to intervene in your life. and act in such a way That my goodness is going to be displayed in your life. I will lift you up. That is, God is going to do something specifically in the person's life when He says, I will bless you. Then what do we mean when we say, well, bless you?
What does that mean?
Well, if you now will stop and think, What the word Means how it was used by God and how it was used by others in the Scripture, it'll make us stop and think before we say, bless you. There are people who will say, Well, the Lord just bless you. Good.
Well, what does that mean? Let's stop and think what it means. When you say, May God bless you. What you're saying scripturally is, may God so intervene in your life. May He so act in your life as to prosper you.
In all the ways that God wants to prosper you, that He will fulfill the desires of your heart, He'll meet the needs of your life. He will enable you to be a success at whatever you do. You will fulfill God's purpose and plan for your life. There are very specific things that you and I should mean when we say, bless you.
So when we use the term with God, the term is very important. And just to say, well, the Lord just bless you good, well, what do you mean by that? And so if I mean what the Scripture means, then I can say bless you and expect and anticipate God to do something good in your life. God never does anything halfway. Listen, He doesn't have a sort of blessing plan for you.
Listen to what He says in this passage, and we come back to it several times. I'd feed you with the finest of the wheat. and with honey from the rock I would satisfy you. God has planned to bless every single one of His children. He has planned the best.
Now, what determines how much of that blessing you and I receive is up to us. I could pray for God to bless you, bless you, bless you. But if you violate something that I'm going to explain in a few moments, then you know what? What you do is you just cancel out my prayer for God to bless you.
Now, if I pray for God to bless you with enough trouble, enough heartache, enough sadness, enough sickness, enough sorrow to get you right with God, then you know what? You better watch out because God knows how to answer that prayer too. And what I want you to remember is this: that all of God's blessings do not come in additions.
Some of God's blessings come in subtractions. And there's some things, for example, if we were to say, if I were to say to you, Let's say that you're out of God's will and you're just messing up your life, and if I say, God, I just want you to show them your will for their life. I want you to take out of their life everything that's causing them a heartache or a problem or causing them to sin or whatever it might be. It depends on how you respond. I remember not too long ago, this young man was talking to me about a young lady he was very much in love with.
And wanted to marry her, and all of a sudden she's up and decided that she's got lots of questions and she doesn't think she wants to get married at this point. And he's just all brokenhearted. And he said, I thought God was going to bless me. And he kept talking. The longer he talked, I finally said, You know what?
God just blessed you, brother. When she walked out of your life, God blessed you. You were getting ready to make a terrible mistake. She doesn't love you. If she did, she wouldn't be acting the way she's acting, feeling the way she's feeling, saying the things she's saying.
You think it'd be a blessing to get married, and I'm telling you, it'd be a blessing not to marry her.
Some things are additional blessings, and some things, some blessings come in subtractions. And if all of us were honest, we'd have to say today, thank God you didn't answer that prayer. Thank God you didn't do that, Lord. Bless you, thank you you didn't do that. Why?
Because sometimes a blessing comes in a way that we don't expect.
So, when you say to somebody, bless you, remember what you're saying. Think about it. You're asking God to intervene in that person's life with His goodness and kindness in ways to meet whatever needs they have, to bring joy into their life, peace in their life, and the success of whatever God's called them to do.
Now, can you say that to a person? And if you can't, you shouldn't use that terminology. We'll just bless you. And when we say, bless God. We say blessed God, we should mean be exalted.
Praise you. I'm expressing thanksgiving, God, for all that you're doing.
So, when we use the terminology, we want to be sure what we mean in the process of doing so. With that in mind, somebody says, Okay, now... What do you mean measure the blessing? All right. How do we measure God's blessings?
The measure of our blessings will be determined by Five things. And I want you to get these five things down because it's all right here in the scripture. It's so simple, it's A, B, C, but it's here, and it's all very important.
Now we said there are different ways we use that terminology, but in essence it's asking for God's divine intervention and action in a person's life or a group of people's life or a nation. Bless the nation. in such a way That there is success, there is prosperity, there's peace, there's joy, and happiness in somebody's life or in the life of that nation.
So let's think about the ways, for example. and what the requirements are.
So I want you to look at this passage of Scripture again. and notice what's happening. He says, I relieve his shoulder of the burden. Hands freed from the basket, speaking of the nation of Israel in captivity. They were Hebrews then, not the nation of Israel yet.
You called in trouble, I rescued you. I answered you in the hiding place of thunder, proved you at the waters of Meribah, which is a time when they were complaining about their food and water and so forth, and giving God a hard time and asking the question: is God among us or is He not?
So He's reminding us here of. their captivity, how he rescued them, how he did what he did in their behalf. The issue here is this. How do you measure God's blessing? And the first thing I want to notice is this, and that is this.
It's measured. It's measured. Listen. Primarily. By our recognition of God as the source of every blessing.
The recognition of God as the source of every blessing. If I don't see Him as the source of the blessing, Then, how can I expect Him to bless me? If you don't recognize God is the source. of every blessing, then you must recognize somebody else or something else as the source of that blessing.
So if I recognize someone else, give them the credit or something else, then what I'm doing is I'm right on the edge of just pure idolatry. That is, rather than believing that God is the source, I replaced him with some other source.
So, one of the first things we have to deal with is. What determines the measure of his blessing is thou recognized that he is the source of it all.
So ask yourself the question. Is it a way of life? Not once in a while, but is it a way of life for you that you recognize and acknowledge? Listen, continuously, God is the source of every good thing that comes your way. If you want the full blessing, that's one of the requirements.
Because, listen, here's what he says: he says he's a jealous God.
Now, somebody says, Well, now, wait a minute.
Now, how can God be jealous? I want you to turn first of all to. Look, if you will, in Psalm 60. Psalm 31. And I want you to notice two passages of Scripture.
Here's a God who hates idolatry. And here's a God who's provided the finest for his people. Listen to what he says in the 19th verse: How great is your goodness, which you have stored up for those who fear you, which you have wrought for those who take refuge in you. That is, he says, God is a good God, and here's what he's done. He has stored up.
Now, what does that mean? Here's what it means, that God has planned. He has planned to bless every single one of his children with the best he has to offer. He's planned the very best. He's a good God.
Now, I want you to turn, if you will, also to the 32nd chapter, I believe, of Deuteronomy. Look at that for a moment. And notice what he says here. Because God God is who He is. And sometimes we don't recognize all that he is.
In the 21st verse of the 32nd chapter of Deuteronomy, here's what it says. God's speaking, they've made me jealous with what is not God. They've provoked me to anger with their idols.
Now, when God says he's jealous, it's interesting if you take a concordance and go through the Old Testament 21 times, you're going to find the word jealous or jealousy. A jealous primarily. Listen, it's 11 times out of those 21. God is the one who's indicated. God says, I am a jealous God.
Here's what he's saying: I love you so much. I have a divine jealousy for you because I know what's best for you. I want what's best for you. Every parent is jealous for their children. Not in a negative, sinful way.
It's not jealousy of somebody because of what they have. But that is you want the best for them. And so God says, I'm a jealous God and I know that these idols cannot speak, cannot hear, cannot move, cannot talk. They have nothing to offer you. There's only one true God.
And when he uses the term here, Lord. In this 81st chapter of the Psalms, he's using the word Yahweh, which simply means listen. He says, Absolute unfaithfulness. That's what this means. Absolute unfaithfulness.
And infinite in power. And eternal in His being. I am the Lord God who brought you out of Egyptian bondage. I'm where your focus ought to be, and upon nothing else. And here's what you remember.
In the Old Testament, when they walked in obedience to God, the blessing of God flowed in their life. When they walked in disobedience to God, would not listen to Him, what happened? They suffered the consequences. The same thing happens today. The principles of God never change.
He's a good God, and He has the best, the finest of the wheat, the sweetest of the honey. He says, I want to satisfy you because listen, a child of God walking in the will of God, listening to God, doing the things of God, obeying God, is an awesome testimony of the reality of God in a person's life. When we do otherwise, and then we expect God to bless us.
So, requirement number one: that is, I have to see and focus on the fact. Believe with all my heart that God is the source of the blessings, all the blessings of our life that come our way.
So, and if you'll notice the response here, he says, Israel would not walk in my ways. And so he says, I gave them over. to the stubbornness of their heart. their consequences in failing To keep our focus upon God. And one of the primary consequences is what?
I miss the blessing. There's a second thing I want you to notice here, and that's this. And that is not only our recognition, but our willingness our willingness to listen to him. Go back, if you will, to um This, the eighth verse: Hear, O my people, and I will admonish you. O Israel, if you would listen to me.
Then he says it again. I, the Lord, am your God, who brought you from the land of Egypt. Open your mouth wide and I'll fill it. But my people did not listen to my voice. They did not listen to my voice.
And therefore they disobeyed me. Think about this. Think about this very idea. You and I would agree that Yahweh, Jehovah, Elohim, Adonai, the God of the Scriptures, is the God of creation. He's the creator.
He's the source of all things. He sits upon his throne, and he says he's established it in the heavens, and is sovereignty rules over all. Think about who he is, and then think about this: that God. In all of His infinite being, is willing to speak to you and to me, sinful human beings, to reveal to us His will, to show us His ways, to give us the things in our life that we need, and to answer our petition when we come to Him, making requests for our desires of our heart. And He says, If we delight ourselves in Him, He gives us the desires of our heart.
Think about the fact that God is willing to speak to you. Think about the awesomeness of that. Holy God willing to speak to us. And when you think about how Paul described him in 1 Timothy and the 6th chapter, listen to him. He says, speaking of him, he who is the blessed and only sovereign, the king of kings, the Lord of lords, who alone possesses immortality, dwells in unapproachable light, with whom, listen, whom no man has seen or can see, to him be honor and eternal dominion.
And he's willing to speak to you and speak to me. If I'm expecting a full measure of God's blessing in my life, not only must my focus be set on Him, but I must learn to listen to Him. Ask yourself the question. How often do you make it a deliberate willful act on your part to listen to God? And when my kids were coming along very early in life and before they ever were born, I decided in my own heart, one of the things I want to teach my children, the first thing I want to teach them above everything else, is how to listen to God.
For the simple reason, if you don't know how to listen to him, you never know where you are. If you don't know how to listen to him, you don't know whether you're in his will or not. If you don't know how to listen to him, you don't know whether you're asking the right thing or not. You don't know whether you're expecting the right thing or not. You know what the will of God is.
Where are you headed in life? Are you just sort of floundering through? And he says to them, Oh, but if you would listen to me. And he cried out, Oh, but if you would listen to me. But my people did not listen to my voice.
Now think about this. if you're not willing to listen to God. How can you expect God to answer your petitions, listen to you when you're not willing to listen to him.
Now when you think about it, it's pretty simple.
Well, how can I expect God to bless me when I don't listen to Him? You know what you do? Here's what you do: you just short-circuit His blessing. I'm going to do the talking. God, I'm making my order.
I'm expecting you to bless me today. You can just forget that. because he's not going to answer that. He says they wouldn't listen to me.
Sodus turned them over to the stubbornness of their hearts. If I want the full measure of God's blessing, My focus must be upon Him and see Him as the source. And secondly, I must learn to listen to Him. Thank you for listening to the measure of your blessing. If you'd like to know more about Charles Stanley or InTouch Ministries, stop by intouch.org.
This podcast is a presentation of In Touch Ministries, Atlanta, Georgia.
