Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places.

Have you ever had a friend that seemed to have everything? They have it all together, they’re amazing at all they do, they are there to help whenever you need it, and they’re just an all-around fantastic person? You want to do something for them — just to say, “thank you” for all they do. But you rack your brain because they have everything, and anything you could do to help them, they could do so much better anyway. I have a few of those kinds of friends, and honestly when I’m in their presence, I don’t feel very worthy. I don’t feel very confident of who I am or what I might have to offer.

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That was the thought that hit me when I read verse three of the first chapter of Ephesians, blessed be God…In Psalm after Psalm, we see the Psalmist blessing the Lord:

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Bless the Lord, O my soul,

   and forget not all his benefits.

Psalm 102:3

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All your works shall give thanks to you, O Lord,

    and all your saints shall bless you!

Psalm 145:10

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Bless the Lord, O my soul!

    O Lord my God, you are very great!

You are clothed with splendor and majesty.

Psalm 104:1

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I will bless the Lord at all times;

    his praise shall continually be in my mouth.

Psalm 34:1

This hit me as being backward. How can we possibly bless the Creator of all the universe? What do we have to offer?

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John Piper’s take on this helped: “When God ‘blesses’ men they are thereby helped and strengthened and made better off than they were before, but when men ‘bless’ God, he is not helped or strengthened or made better off. Rather man’s blessing God is an ‘expression of praising thankfulness.’ When the OT speaks of blessing God it does not ‘designate a process that aims at the increase of God’s strength.’ It is an ‘exclamation of gratitude and admiration.’”

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While we don’t actually make God better or strengthen him in any way, when we praise him and offer him thanks, it does bring him joy — thus blessing him. How cool is that? That we can actually do something that indeed blesses the Creator of the universe — it blows my mind.

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And why do we bless him (thank and praise him)? Because he has “blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places” (Eph 1:3). Let’s break that down…God has blessed us with every — meaning all, each and every, all things, completeness — spiritual blessing. Because we are in Christ Jesus, we have access to the completeness of God’s spiritual blessing. This word spiritual is the Greek word pneumatikos, and it means emanating from the Divine Spirit, or exhibiting its effects and so its character. So, every bit of the character of the Spirit is at our disposal. We have access to blessings that will make us more like Christ. That is CRAZY.

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And I believe that as we become more like Christ, we further bless our Creator. My friend, as a believer in Christ, your identity is in him and as such, YOU are a blessing to God. When the world throws you for a loop and challenges what you believe and who you are, when you don’t feel worthy or confident in what you have to offer, rest in the knowledge that YOU are a blessing to God Himself. Through Christ, you can have confidence of who and what you are — and no one can take that away from you.

Bless you, God my Father and Christ my Savior. In you I have confidence of who I am, what I am, and what I have to offer. Help us to become more like you as we receive your blessings and in turn bless you back. For all you are — praise you. In Jesus’ name ~ AMEN!