Journal Entry ~ 07/16/19

1 Blessed is everyone who fears the LORD, who walks in his ways! 
2 You shall eat the fruit of the labor of your hands; you shall be blessed, and it shall be well with you.  - Psalm 128:1-2

Blessed is translated to mean blissfully happy or content. What a beautiful thought! Whenever I see the word in Scripture, I smile at the fact that God truly does want to see us happy in life. Look how many times He uses “blessed” in scripture!He gives us specific directions for how to be happy all throughout the Bible. He does acknowledge we will have troubles in this life, but at the end of the day, His Word tells us how to be happy while on this journey. 

In God’s perfect plan, He chose this psalm to follow psalm 127. After spending a week meditating on anxiousness, reading about being happy is like a breath of fresh air. We’ve spent some time digging through scripture, learning about how to put away those anxious thoughts, now psalm 128 tells us how to take it one step further and actually be happy. 

Many see the word blessing in scripture and think of physical blessings or material possession. So, when they read a passage like this, Blessed is everyone who fears the Lord, who walks in His ways, they think if they follow Gods rules, their lives will be blessed with stuff or they will know no hardship. That line of thinking has produced a great deal of legalism in the Christian community, and is the backbone of the health and wealth gospel. 

God never meant to tell us He will give us stuff or make our lives easy if we follow His rules, but He does tell us how to experience delight and joy despite our difficult circumstances. Those who fear the Lord and walk in His ways are blessed. 

Fearing the Lord is trusting in the Lord. It’s knowing He is sovereign over our circumstances, and believing that He works all things for the good of those who love Him. When we truly believe that in our core, we have peace that transcends all understanding, and we are content with our circumstances. When we are not happy - when we are not content with our circumstances, our fear is placed in something other than the Lord. We grow anxious when we place our trust in our ability to work the situation out for our good because we realize we cannot control all things and we will most likely fail. 

Where are you not happy in your life? Where do you struggle to find contentment? That’s where you are failing to trust in Him. Hand the circumstance over to your Father and believe that He will work it out for the good of those who love Him and He will bless you. 

When we are content with our circumstances, we find delight in our journey. God blesses our choice to trust in Him, and He promises when we do, we will be happy. 

Press on ~ you are loved 💗





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