By 
If you’ve been out in the retail world at all, or logged on lately to window shop, I’m sure you’ve noticed the changing of the seasons. While the weather may not give a clear indication that the Holidays are upon us, Hobby Lobby most definitely does. Amid the rows of pre-lit Christmas wreaths and ribbons, half-price pumpkins and gourds take their rightful place next to wooden signs, decorative pillows, and wall hangings stamped with beautiful lettering proclaiming the message of the Thanksgiving holiday—some combination or variation on three words: “Grateful”, “Thankful”, or “Blessed”.
I’m not knocking such festive nods to the celebration of the early settlers’ first feast. I even have a few scattered throughout my home, and I enjoy the subtle reminders to stop and acknowledge the countless blessings we live under in today’s world. I don’t have to rely on my own horticulture skills to feed my family healthy fruits and veggies. I don’t usually have to hunt and prepare my own protein sources. I have hot water to shower in, and blow dryers and straightening irons available through the magic of electricity, to help make those Christmas card photos look less like a scene from the pilgrim’s first moments off the Mayflower. (I assume, after traveling across the Atlantic on the most primitive version of a cruise around the world, the pilgrims may not have been what we would consider camera ready.)
These are all things I’m thankful for. The list of blessings in my life everyday could go on and on and on; but during this season of thankfulness and generosity, I propose we look deeper into God’s word to make sure we don’t just hover over the material as we acknowledge our abundance around our Thanksgiving tables.
The idea of God blessing His creation goes back to the very beginning of the world, or at least to day five of the Genesis account. After creating the animals of the sea and air, God saw that it was good. And God blessed them, saying, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth” (Genesis 1:22, ESV).
God went on to bless Adam and Eve, giving them dominion over creation to care for and protect it. Throughout the Old Testament God would bestow His blessing upon Noah, Abraham, Sarah, Rebekah, Isaac, Jacob, and eventually the entire nation of Israel. He would make a covenant with them, that they would be His chosen people, and that eventually the King that would rule all nations eternally would come from the line of David. In most of the Old Testament, when a blessing was bestowed by God it primarily revolved around the growth of someone’s family and lineage. Having lots of children was a blessing from God, the growth of someone’s estate was a blessing from God, and obtaining leadership and influence, whether it be governmental or in the faith, was also considered a divine blessing from the Lord. Many times the Israelites received blessings of bountiful harvests, overflowing storehouses, or numerous livestock.
In our modern world, all these things would translate into blessings of wealth and provision. I’m not here to say that the Lord no longer blesses His people in this way; but if we only look at the accumulation of wealth and provision as the Lord’s blessing, or on the contrary if we consider a lack of having monetary provisions as the Lord’s discipline, we are sorely missing the point.
There is a popular movement in the Evangelical world that I’m sure you’re familiar with called “The Prosperity Gospel”. Teachers from this camp cherry-pick some really great verses about the Lord’s blessings on His faithful followers, and interpret these to mean that if we are faithful followers of Christ we will be healthy, wealthy, and maybe even wise. Besides obvious issues with the theology, the danger with buying into this school of thought is that if you believe it, when you fall on hard times or suffering it must also be concluded this is the Lord’s punishment for your unfaithfulness. This line of thinking puts us in a dangerous and very transactional relationship with the God of the Universe, one He never intended us to walk in.
What then should we count as God’s blessings? The short answer is everything! Until we embrace the fact that every single thing we have in this world, material and spiritual, is a gift from the Lord, we can’t begin to understand how blessed we truly are.
More than anything, the greatest blessing we receive from Him is a deeper relationship with Him and understanding of who He truly is. Over and over in the Bible God implored His people to come back to Him and His statutes, not because He needed their sacrifices to build His kingdom, not because He couldn’t feed His own priests without their harvests, but because He wanted to be first in their hearts. He desired to walk in relationship with His children as their loving Father who gives them good gifts: “If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!” (Matthew 7:11, ESV). In Luke’s account, God’s good things become the Holy Spirit: “If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!” (Luke 11:13 (ESV)).
As believers, the ultimate blessing the Lord can give us is more of Himself—a deeper understanding of who He is, a closer walk with Him daily, a more intimate knowledge of the God and Creator of the Universe. Sometimes this gift of love comes in the form of meeting a tangible need we have. Sometimes it’s answered prayer. Sometimes it’s the birth of a baby, or a child accepting salvation. Sometimes it may even come in the form of suffering or hardship, ultimately drawing us into a deeper relationship with our Lord and Savior. However the blessing of knowing Him more deeply comes to us, we know it’s the ultimate gift from the Lord for which we can genuinely be grateful, thankful, and truly blessed.
Tami Spencer
Tami is a freelance writer, marketer, blogger, Womenary board member, and member of the children’s ministry and women’s Bible study teams at Bethel Bible Church in Tyler, Texas. Tami and her husband, William, have been married for 15 years and have 5 children, Becton (12), Addie Leigh (9), Norah (7), and twins Slone and Sophie (2.5). 
