To be truly blessed is when God calls you blessed. What others think doesn’t compare.

“Blessed is the one who does not walk in step with the wicked or stand in the way that sinners take or sit in the company of mockers, but whose delight is in the law of the Lord, and who meditates on his law day and night. (Psalm 1:1-2)”

Last night was Halloween and kiddies came knocking on my door trick and treating. The ‘scream’ masks and spooky clothes made my not-so-bright dogs lose what little grip on reality they had left. I had bags of lollies and I liberally dished out handfuls of future tooth cavities.

A cute little group stood on my doorstep debating how to share the stash while their wine-sipping parents stood on the driveway smiling gratefully. One of them shouted out to me: ‘Bless you!’ I smiled warmly but started thinking…

What does ‘bless you’ actually mean? Its not part of Halloween. I noticed the ‘God’ part fell off and instead of ‘God bless you,’ its just ‘bless you.’ What does it mean? Does she mean, ‘may you be healthy?’ Or, ‘may you win the lottery’? Or does she mean, ‘may you be happy’? In that case I’d call myself blessed.

But if I call myself blessed does that mean I really am blessed? I saw a millionaire in his late 70’s holding a curvy blonde in her 30’s. As he looks at her body he would call himself blessed too. Is he though?

Maybe I’m blessed if others call me blessed? That’s what social media can do for us. We present a fake fantastic life so that others think we’re blessed. It feels nice when someone looks at us and says, ‘dude/dudette, you’re so blessed!’

Seriously, how much better than all this if God calls you blessed! Imagine if God looks at your real life and says: “You are so blessed”! Wow! Surely His opinion matters more than anyone else? God can’t easily be impressed because He owns absolutely everything. If He thinks I’m blessed, I must be blessed beyond even my own ability to see it!

Psalm 1 shows us what God thinks is the blessed life. It starts by not going the way of this world. If we don’t walk, stand or sit with the thoughts and values of this world, we are halfway to being blessed.

To be fully blessed is to delight and meditate on God’s word. ‘Delight’ means to savour His word with our hearts. Our hearts find His word delightfully sweet. ‘Meditate’ means to savour His word with our minds – to think, cogitate, ruminate and grasp the truth of His word. God says when our hearts and minds together enjoy His word, we are blessed. So what is ‘blessed’?