We now live in a world that everyone is #blessed. We throw that hashtag around like confetti. Someone gets a new car they are #blessed. Another gets a holiday bonus they are #blessed. Or maybe a lottery ticket pays off and you are #blessed. I must admit I myself have thrown this hashtag around too often. That is until I was recently asked to speak on this topic at our monthly inspiration meeting. The more I researched blessings, the more clearly I could see the difference.
I would like to talk about two types of blessings, undeserved blessings and spiritual blessings. The two types of blessings I feel are most prevalent in our lives. As well as the most misunderstood.
Undeserved blessings are things that come to you in a materialistic form. Things that boost you in earthy goods. Some undeserved blessings would be basically what everyone is hash tagging as #blessed. New cars, a bigger home, weight loss or transformation of appearance, finding a $100 bill on the sidewalk, landing that new boyfriend or girlfriend you had been hoping for. Anything that comes to you unexpectedly for your good.
If you notice, these blessings are very superficial and don’t add to your spiritual well being. They are earthly gifts that are given through God’s grace. They are bonuses to make your life happier while you are here on earth. They give you instant gratification and satisfaction at the time they present themselves to you.
Now don’t get me wrong, these gifts are exciting and may make a difference in our day but they are short lived and frivolous. They appear at just the right time to appear as a blessing but we need to recognize them as a gift from God through His grace because He loves us. Simply they are things humans recognize for their ego.
You may ask me why does everyone get these undeserved blessings? Why do the mean and corrupt receive good things too? The answer is simple and makes my previous paragraph more clear. God gives His grace to everyone through undeserved blessings. He loves each and everyone of us and offers us gifts everyday just because of His love. They are undeserved since we still sin and don’t always do God’s will as we promise Him we will.
So I have explained undeserved blessings now I would like to explain the most beautiful type of blessing. Spiritual or Holy blessings. The blessings that prove to us that God is always with us. The miraculous blessings. The blessings that if you don’t know God the way He wants you to know Him makes you see Him clearly.
We all know that God loves us unconditionally but it is the spiritual blessings that show our heavenly Father’s true love for us. Spiritual blessings are blessings that cannot be bought or felt with our hands. They can only be felt in our hearts in the form of His true love.
Spiritual blessings are a healing of someone with a terminal disease. One day the diagnosis comes that your family member has six months to live and at the next doctor’s appointment there is no sign of the disease. Your family member has been healed. God blessed your family with a spiritual blessing. The doctors couldn’t cure the disease but somehow it is gone. That my friend is God’s true love through a spiritual blessing.
Maybe you have not spoken to a family member in ten years. The fight has gone on so long that both people aren’t really sure why they are still fighting. They just know the other is to blame and they want nothing to do with each other. Then you find yourself in a store at the holidays selecting presents for another family member when you feel someone unexpectedly bump into you. You look up to see it is the person you have been ignoring for all those years.
As you stand and look at each other you feel a healing in your hearts and it becomes clear you need to reconcile. You can’t explain how all the hatred you have for this person suddenly left you but it did. I can, it is God’s healing and it is a spiritual blessing.
Have you ever been driving down the road and all of the sudden you are in a situation of an unavoidable car accident and your steering wheel somehow swerves to the right and you avoid the accident? What about just opening you eyes in the morning to live another day? Recognize again, these are not things you can buy only God can bless you with these things.
Just like Jesus healed the blind to be able to see again or raised Lazarus from the dead a spiritual blessing cannot be explained in humanly terms. It is faith that brings these spiritual blessings to us.
You can’t buy or coerce spiritual healing. It can’t be controlled or demanded. It is only through God’s true love for you that He gives you this spiritual blessings. He heals and returns love to those through His love and mercy. He asks nothing in return except for your love and trust in Him.
I recognize in my own life when a serious crisis has hit my family when I practice my faith more fully more spiritual blessings come my way. I recently had a family member get devastating news about their health. It was a diagnosis that was not even on anyone’s radar but the phone call came. It was stage four cancer. We had extremely little cancer in our family and this news threw all of us into an immediate depression and feelings of despair.
I of course cried, felt lifeless recognizing that this was a bad situation. A few days after praying my heart out and asking God to heal the family member I said, “Father I trust in You and all my faith is in You. I know you have a solution and a plan for everything that happens in my life. I know you are holding my family member in Your hands and everything will be fine according to Your grace and mercy.” Once I sincerely said this prayer I felt at peace and comforted.
My family member asked for a copy of the biopsy to take to MD Anderson. They showed me the histopath (biopsy) report because of my medical background. As I read the report I felt myself lifted up. The report said level four cancer, not stage four cancer. This is a difference between the brightest light and the darkest dark. Level four means that changing cancer cells are present that can be aggressive and further assessment is needed . Stage four means the cancer has metastasized to other places on the body with a poor prognosis.
I know God gave us a spiritual healing and I am confident that as my family member is now at MD Anderson for evaluation that God is watching over them as well as the doctors. I see what He has done for my family. I feel the peace because of God being in control. I also feel that the error the doctor said over the phone allowed me to become closer to my family member as I sometimes found it difficult to relate to them. To me, a healing of sorts and a reconciliation is a double spiritual blessing. I am truly #blessed.
I ask you to think every time you say the word blessed, use it for spiritual blessings and not undeserved blessings. Please consider when you get that earthy blessing you can touch with your hands and not your heart to use different hashtags than blessed. Hashtags like #grateful, #thankful or #honored. For example; I am #grateful I received a holiday bonus. I am #thankful I received the holiday bonus. I am #honored I received a holiday bonus.
Reserve #blessed when you can say God healed me, God redeemed me or maybe I am renewed. I am so grateful for each and every one of you that take the times to read my words. Please know I pray for each and everyone of you to receive God’s true blessing of spiritual healing when you need it.
My love and gratitude, LoLo
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