The Doorpost: What does God’s blessing look like?

Blessed are you when other revile you and persecute you an utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.
Matthew 5:11-12

What does God’s blessing look like? When things seem to be going well in our lives, we think that means that God is blessing us. When there are difficulties or hardships, we may ask why God isn’t blessing us. Others, even family members or fellow believers, may suggest that we need to do something differently or be a different kind of person. What should we be and do?

In the first 12 verses of Matthew 5, Jesus tells us the kinds of people that God blesses and what His blessing looks like. What He says is just the opposite of what we naturally tend to think and of what the people in the world around us are saying. He says that it has always been that way.

The pillars of the faith in the Bible and in the history of the Church, whom we hold in high esteem today, did not always receive approval or have an easy life when they were here on earth. We should not expect anything different. We need to be the kind of people God blesses, and we need to recognize His blessing when we are receiving it.