What Is A Blessing?

If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!

You see several forms of the word all through the Bible. Bless, blessing, blessed. People use it church and when they’re either around other Christians or when talking to someone about God or any Biblically related subject. Even when someone sneezes you’ll often hear at least one “Bless you” or “God Bless you” spoken to the person sneezing.

The question is though, with all this use of the word, how many really know what it means. The answer is: not very many.

Early in Matthew 5, in the portion of scripture referred to as the Beatitudes, Jesus listed nine groups of people and called each of them blessed. The Greek word that’s translated “blessed” in these verses is makarios {pronounced mak-ar’-ee-os} [strongs number 3107], which language references I have checked say means “blessed, happy”.

Not being satisfied with a definition that uses the word being defined, I looked farther and found a reference in The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia that clarifies things some… that the word “Blessed” when referring to humans it is being used in the sense of “happy” or “favored,” which makes perfect sense in the context of the Beatitudes.

Other uses of the word Blessed in the New Testament are translated from the Greek eulogeo {pronounced yoo-log-eh’-o} [strongs number 2127] and means to speak well of, thank or invoke a benediction upon, prosper.

Now the phrase “God Bless you” takes on a whole new, powerful meaning. You could look at the meaning of eulogeo and render that phrase “May God speak well of and prosper you”.

It’s also important to remember that God speaking is a powerful thing. If He speaks something, it comes to pass. In Genesis He spoke and there was light. He spoke again and the heavens were formed and so on through the creation story. When God speaks, things happen, His word is powerful and will always accomplish the purpose He speaks it for.

Isaiah 45:23, “I have sworn by myself, the word is gone out of my mouth in righteousness, and shall not return, That unto me every knee shall bow, every tongue shall swear.”

When you think about it, there’s a high degree of awesomeness in this. God speaking well of you and prospering you.

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!