Blessed?

It stirs my curiosity when Christians talk about how they are blessed. What do they mean? How are they blessed? What is their definition of being blessed?
It is usually referring to material things, their health, promotions, pay raises, etc. Many times that same person bears no fruit in their life. God is clearly not first in their life and to make that observation is NOT being judgmental. The Bible is clear and tells us what a follower of Jesus looks like. So are you blessed and if so, in what way? Does it line up with the Bible's definition of blessed? When you look at Matthew 5, those who are poor in spirit, meek, merciful and persecuted are blessed. Luke 14:13 says that those who invite the poor and the lame to their banquets are blessed. Even more, children are blessed (Mark 10:16), those who hear and obey the Word of God are blessed (Luke 11:28), those who do not fall away are blessed (Luke 7:23) and those who are invited to the Wedding Supper of the Lamb are blessed in (Revelation 19:9).

In short, those who trust in Christ and grow to be like Him are blessed. Now... are you truly living the blessed life? Are you poor in spirit, meek, merciful? Are you being persecuted? Do you invite the lame and poor to eat with you? Do you hear and obey the Word of God? Have you fallen away from Christ? Then will you be invited to the Wedding Supper of the Lamb? Take a personal inventory of your blessings and compare them to what Scripture says. I sure bombed on some of these and was challenged. You can be offended by this or you can carefully consider it.

I certainly agree that we are blessed beyond measure when it comes to God's grace shown to us on the Cross. Children are tremendous blessings as well. But one thing I have learned while reading the Holy Scriptures is that God intends for us to receive blessings beyond the blessing of Christ on the Cross or the blessing of children. And it's not blessings the way we think of. Jesus tells us to be the Salt and Light to the world (Matt 5:13-14) and if we are doing that, we WILL be persecuted. Being persecuted is a blessing. But we would never see it that way. Jesus said blessed are those who hunger and thirst for Righteousness. Blessed are the merciful. Blessed are the pure in heart. Blessed are the peacemakers. So it is obvious that God desires more for us than just being blessed because Jesus died for us on the Cross when we certainly do not deserve it. Changes in our actions and character are required for us. If there is no change in our actions and character, then I would say we would have to question our Salvation. That is what I did last year. I looked over my life and realized I was not bearing fruit. We are justified by what Jesus did on the Cross but we are not sanctified. Don't get me wrong. I am not making light in any way what Jesus did for me on the Cross. And I believe that God's Grace is sufficient for me. But I believe that Jesus is clearly telling us following Him costs us something here on this earth. So many times I have brought up Scriptures to other people that talk about being different than the world, about being persecuted, about denying ourselves, about desiring to be righteous and sanctified (which means continually being separated from sin), I always hear the same words spoken. Either, "Well I have a personal relationship with Jesus and He will convict me if I am doing something wrong" or they will always go back to God's Grace and talk about how we can never be anywhere near like God and trying to do so is trying to earn our Salvation. But if we read the Word of God and study it, we WILL be convicted of many things. One of God's Will for us is to be sanctified (separated from sin). We can find more about this in I Thessalonians 4:3-8. I think that there are many "Christians" around us that are just like I was. They believed they were saved, so they were safe from Hell because they made a decision at some point to repent of their sins and say a prayer asking Jesus to save them. But there must be constant repentance and there must be a change in a person's life. These are both Biblical. I am reminded of Matthew 7:21-23. “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?’ Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’

One may read into that and say then, that it is our works of doing the will of the father that saves us. But that is not it. I believe it is saying that if God has truly saved us, then we will desire to know and do the Will of the Father. If one does not have that desire, then like Paul says, they should examine themselves. Some say that I am being judgmental by saying stuff like this because it looks as though I am telling people to question their salvation or saying they are not saved. But I was in that situation myself and if I did not bring these Scriptures up to get people to think about it, then I would not be loving others as I do myself which is the second greatest command of Jesus.

Anyone reading, feel free to share your thoughts. I am a young immature Christian seeking to follow Jesus and doing my best to let the Holy Spirit guide me in interpreting the Scriptures.