I'm good.........

Good morning! I am blessed to be able to bring the Word to a group of teenagers tonight at a youth retreat! Must say I'm pretty excited. I was talking to someone last night about blessings. I had a lady trying to do something very nice for me a church one day and I kinda stiff armed her and kept telling her "No", "You don't need to do that". She finally looked at me dead in the eye and said "Listen, I feel led to do this. Now, don't you dare steal my blessing!" I sat there and soaked that in for a bit and realized she was a very sweet woman that was trying to help me. I was standing in the way of her blessing. Possibly even sort of stealing it from her. That is when I realized that we sometimes need to allow others to help us even when we don't need it. It is not always about us. Ouch, that stung when I just said it. See my pride of being able to do things on my own got in the way. Let's dig into the good stuff and see what it says...........

Bible Verse: Psalm 1:1 How blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked,
Nor stand in the path of sinners,

Here is the deal. I love being "happy" but, I don’t know if I like the word “happy.” It’s a slippery word for a slippery emotion. As soon as I start evaluating the level of my happiness, it starts fading. On the other hand, sometimes I’m hit with a wide-eyed awareness: “I’m really happy right now.”

Now, some say the word “blessed” that we’re going to talk about today means “happy,” but it’s more than that! It means something like “happy because God likes me and he’s taking care of me.” As a Christian, I can always say I’m being blessed by God even as my mood rises and falls with my hunger level. See, God want to bless us!

So, in other words, blessing can be an emotion, but it’s backed by rock solid evidence of God’s goodness. Any good things or feelings I can point to in my life absolutely come from him. And when I start counting all the good things I have and feel because of Jesus, it’s easy to call myself blessed. Maybe even happy. Definitely happy. How often do you apply these words to yourself - blessed or happy? What’s the difference between feeling blessed or happy and knowing for a fact that you are blessed by God?

Let's thank God for all the ways he has blessed you with good gifts and good emotions in your life. Have a great day and God bless!