Living the Blessed Life

In 1984, I was a traveling evangelist, and all of my income came from love offerings I received from the churches where I preached. In those years, my income from offerings might be $800 one week and $200 the next. My wife Debbie and I just never knew. But early in our marriage, we had learned to trust God where our finances were concerned.

A pivotal moment on our journey to the blessed life occurred when a man I hardly knew gave me an unexpected word from the Lord: “God wants to teach you about giving so that you can teach the body of Christ.”

That was the beginning of a remarkable season of giving, resulting in tremendous blessings as well. Our income skyrocketed. It seemed the more Debbie and I gave, the more God gave to us. It was as if we were truly living out the old saying: You can’t out give God. We were able to increase our giving to 70% of our gross income, and we found ourselves living more comfortably on 30% than we previously had on 90%.

I’ve discovered that there are more than 500 verses in the Bible concerning prayer and nearly 500 verses concerning faith, but more than 2,000 verses on the subject of money and possessions. This is so important for a blessed life that Jesus talked about money in 16 of His 38 parables!

Without a doubt, the enemy of your soul would do anything to keep you from discovering God’s principles governing financial stewardship, giving, and blessing. Why? Because once you do, it will transform your life for the better. It will bring you guaranteed financial results. But it will also do more than that: It will impact the Kingdom of God and help bring revival to the world.

Are You Blessed?

What does a life filled with blessing look like? Being “blessed” means having supernatural power working for you. By contrast, being “cursed” means having supernatural power working against you.

The days of the blessed person are filled with divine “coincidences” and heavenly meaning. Blessed people may or may not be wealthy by the world’s standards, but they enjoy a quality of life that most billionaires would envy.

At several separate points in the book of Deuteronomy, God tells those who will obey Him that He will bless everything to which they put their hands (14:29, 15:10, 23:20, 28:8,12). That’s what the blessed life is like. Everything you touch does well. Blessing permeates every aspect of your life—health, relationships, work, family, emotions, and thoughts.

A Heart Transformation

Yes, as God’s people prosper, more money will come into the Kingdom. But much more important, our hearts will be changed!

No one is a natural-born giver. We are all born takers. We enter this world with a fallen sin nature, and at the heart of that nature is a tendency toward selfishness.

In contrast, God is a giver. The most widely known verse in the Bible tells us: “God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son” (John 3:16).

God is generous beyond our ability to imagine. But it was selfishness and pride that caused Satan to be cast out of heaven.

Many people in our culture have that exactly backwards. They see God as stingy and the devil as the one who likes to pass out favors.

I can tell you from personal experience, there’s no greater adventure on Earth than living the life of generosity and abundance that’s available to all of God’s people—but that so few ever dare to live. It is a journey of reward. It is the blessed life. So let your adventure begin!

I’d Like to be a Giver

This article is an excerpt from the book, The Blessed Life by Robert Morris. It can be found on Amazon or wherever books are sold.