I love to receive blessings, do you?

We might only think that blessings are tangible things like money, cars, homes, food, family and friends. However, blessings are so much more than this. Blessings can be love, forgiveness, peace, support or encouragement. Have you been blessed? In what ways?

When we get blessed, our friends, families, and others around us should get blessed. We have a responsibility once we receive a blessing. Luke 12:48 states, “To whom much is given, much is required.” Blessings should flow from God to us, then to others.

The challenge for us is that we need to move forward from the mindset of always asking God for a blessing and graduate to the mindset of being the blessing. Instead of asking God for a friend, ask God who can I be a friend to? All of us have the potential to be the blessing. We can be the miracle. We can be an answer to someone’s prayer. The spirit of God is inside of us, we have to tap into the power that is within.

How can we be the blessing?

1 Thessalonians 5:11 states, “Encourage one another and build up each other, as indeed you are doing.” We can encourage each other, build up one another, forgive, be nonjudgmental, and support one another. Also, we can support charities and non-profit organizations. We can spend time mentoring a student, or we can create care kits for college students. There are many ways that we can be the blessing. Think about how you can be the blessing in someone’s life.

What happens when we are the blessing?

Once we give to others, it will come back to us. Luke 6:38 states, “give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap; for the measure you give will be the measure you get back.” Now, don’t give, just to get something in return. Just give. When we bless others, God will give more to us.

There is a song that says, you can’t be God giving no matter how hard you try. The more you give, the more he gives to you. So, start today and be the blessing.

REV. MATTHEW SHANNON is pastor of Beulah AME Church in Farmville. His email is pastormatthew.shannon@gmail.com.