4 Characteristics of Blessed People You Might Not Expect

Often Christians talk about God’s blessing. But what does God’s blessing really look like? What does it mean to be “blessed people”?

As I was doing some Bible study in the Gospel of Luke with the help of the Life-study of the Bible, I discovered four characteristics of blessed people that  touched me very much.

I also had the thought that many believers might easily miss these “hidden blessings.”

So let’s consider four characteristics of blessed people according to the Lord’s own word.

4 Characteristics of Blessed People You Might Not Expect

But before seeing these four characteristics of blessed people, we need to pick up one principle. The principle in Luke 6 is that we who believe in Christ and who have been born of God should be a people blessed by God.

As a result of the fall, we all came under the curse. But in the jubilee of grace the Lord Jesus has rescued us from the curse and has brought us into God’s blessing.

1.  “Blessed are the poor, for yours is the kingdom of God”—Luke 6:20.

The word “poor” indicates being poor in earthly, material things and also poor in heavenly, spiritual things. Often we find it difficult for those who are rich in earthly, material things to be poor in heavenly, spiritual things.

To be poor in heavenly, spiritual things is actually a good thing. In the parallel passage in Matthew 5:3 it says,

Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of the heavens.

This means that concerning spiritual things, we should sense that we have nothing, that we are poor. “Poor in spirit” refers to our human spirit, the deepest part of our being. Our spirit is the organ for us to contact God and to realize spiritual things. So we need to be poor, emptied, and unloaded, in this deepest part of our being so that we may realize and possess the kingdom of God.

If we would experience this spiritual blessing, we should pray to be poor in spirit.  Especially when we come to the Lord and to His Word we should pray,

“Lord I love you and I want to experience and enjoy You in a fresh way. Empty me from all my old knowledge and concepts, and past experiences. Make me poor in spirit so I can receive something new of You.  Dispense Yourself, with Your heart’s desire into my empty vessel.”

2. “Blessed are those who hunger now, for you shall be satisfied”—Luke 6:21a:

What does it mean to “hunger now”?  In Luke 6:21 the Lord speaks especially of our spiritual hunger. First, we become those who are poor in spiritual things as we mentioned above. Then we hunger after the things we lack in the spiritual realm. Such a hunger is the foremost condition for spiritual progress.

Paul was a pattern to us in this.  He was not satisfied or self contented with his spiritual attainments. In Philippians 3:8-9 he said that he counted everything as refuse in order to gain Christ and be found in Christ. May we follow his pattern.

How can we be blessed with spiritual hunger? Ask for it and receive it by faith. Open to the Lord and pray,

“Lord, grant me the blessing of being always hungry and thirsty for more of You. Enlarge my spiritual appetite. Grant me a fresh hunger and thirst for You in Your Word today.”

It is really a blessing to have such a spiritual hunger and thirst. One of my favorite hymns by Witness Lee begins with the line: “My heart is hungry, my spirit doth thirst.” You can read the lyrics here and listen to the tune here. I encourage you pray with the lyrics to receive more hunger for the Lord.

The Lord promises that those who hunger now will be satisfied. That is, we will be satisfied with the spiritual riches of Christ (Eph. 3:8).

3. “Blessed are those who weep now, for you shall laugh”—Luke 6:21b:

Who could imagine that “weeping now” could be a blessing? What does it mean to “weep now”?

To weep here means to repent and to regret.  It means that we are not happy about our spiritual situation and condition.

It is a shame that many Christians are content with their spiritual situation and condition. May we heed the Lord’s word to repent and pray,

“Lord, I repent for being a complacent Christian, wasting so much time. I’m not happy with my spiritual situation and condition. Grant me your mercy to forsake the past and have a fresh turn to You.”

4. “Blessed are you when men hate you and when they separate you from them…for the Son of Man’s sake”—vv. 22-23:

How can being “hated by men and being reproached by them” be a blessing?  Yet, according to the Lord’s word, it is a blessing to be hated and reproached for His sake.

We may like to be praised by others and to be valued, honored, and highly esteemed by them. But, we need to realize that, as believers, we will be hated and evil spoken of by the world (John 15:18-16:4).  That’s because the entire world is following Satan, and we are following the Lord to go in the opposite direction.

Because our way is opposite to that of the world, the worldly people will hate us and speak evil about us. We should expect it and even consider it a blessing.

It is a good practice, when we get into a new environment, to let those around us know that we are believers, those following the Lord Jesus.

Such a testimony for Christ may result in their rejection, but it will separate us from the world and bring us the Lord’s smiling face. At such a time the Spirit of glory and of God rests on us (1 Pet. 4:14).

“Lord, thank you that we can know the blessing of being reproached and rejected for Your sake. The world’s rejection and reproach makes Your presence more dear and precious to us. Praise you Lord for such a blessing.”

May we never be ashamed of our Lord’s name, but count it all joy to be dishonored with our rejected Lord.

If you have been helped by any of the points in this post, please take a moment to confirm with a short comment.

References:

This post was inspired by my reading of Life-study of Luke, message 14 by Witness Lee.