Blessing - Introduction

Blessing is an important element of God’s relationship with His creation and, especially, with His own people. From the very beginning, God wanted to bless what He had created:

But, what is ‘blessing’? How are we to understand it?

The basic idea of blessing is that someone either says or does something which is beneficial to another, whether by making them feel better or improving their life in some tangible way, for example, by a gift of money.

It’s interesting to note that in both of these ‘creation’ blessings, the result of the blessing is fruitfulness, multiplication, and filling.

Our God is the author of life, and His blessing will always bring about an abundance of life in some way, whether that be measured in quantity, as here, or in quality, as promised by Jesus (John 10:10).

In the Old Testament, the Hebrew word normally translated as ‘bless’ is ‘baw-RAK’ (number H1288 in Strong’s Concordance), which has the basic meaning of ‘to KNEEL’. This could be interpreted either as a subordinate kneeling in submission or adoration to a superior, or the superior kneeling in condescension to the subordinate.

In the first case, the superior is blessed by the devotion of the subordinate, and in the second case, the subordinate is blessed by the generous attention of the superior.

Other possible translations of this word are: salute, praise, adore.

In the New Testament, the Greek word is pronounced ‘yoo-log-EH-o’ (number G2127 in Strong’s), from which comes our English word ‘eulogy’, which Chambers dictionary defines as, ‘a speech or writing in praise’. The Greek word has the basic meaning of ‘to speak well of’, therefore to praise, to celebrate, to pronounce well-being, and, by extension, to act in such way that the other person obtains an actual benefit.

Throughout the scripture, God blesses people, people bless each other, and people bless God. Jesus even commands us to “bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you” (Luke 6:28).

Blessing is central to our relationship with God and our relationships with each other.

When God called Abraham, He wanted him not only to be blessed, but also to be a blessing (Genesis 12:2-3).

Let’s look at this passage in the Classic Amplified Bible, which amplifies the text by expanding the translation of particular words into phrases [enclosed in square brackets] to help us to grasp the full meaning:

In keeping with this, we often say that “I’m blessed to be a blessing”. This statement has two possible interpretations:

• a. I have been blessed so that I, in turn, can be a blessing to someone else;
• b. When I reach out to be a blessing to someone else, I find that I myself am blessed.

Both of these alternatives are true.

A blessing is never wasted and never lost. Proverbs 26 verse 2 says that an undeserved curse will never come to rest; but a blessing will always bring a benefit to someone, even if it’s only the one who pronounces it!

In 2024, our church had a season where we focused on blessing, and all of our teaching, preaching, and sharing during that period was rooted in that theme.

The following three articles are based on the teachings that I brought to the church at that time.

I pray that you will be blessed as you read and meditate upon them.

Let's start by thinking about how you can position yourself to receive the blessing of God.