The Kind of Person God Blesses!
Tonight I propose a question that I intend to answer as we journey through the Word of God. “What kind of person does God bless?” Now, it is our desire, as Christians, to be blessed by God, but what kind of person receives the blessing of God? What kind of person invokes the hand of God’s favor upon them? There is the question. Now, let us begin our journey. Turn to the first chapter of Job starting with verse one and we will right away find two noticeable things about Job: his character, and God’s blessing:
“There was a man in the land of Uz whose name was Job; and that man was blameless, upright, fearing God and turning away from evil. Seven sons and three daughters were born to him. His possessions also were 7,000 sheep, 3,000 camels, 500 yoke of oxen, 500 female donkeys, and very many servants; and that man was the greatest of all the men of the east. His sons used to go and hold a feast in the house of each one on his day, and they would send and invite their three sisters to eat and drink with them. When the days of feasting had completed their cycle, Job would send and consecrate them, rising up early in the morning and offering burnt offerings according to the number of them all; for Job said, “Perhaps my sons have sinned and cursed God in their hearts.” Thus Job did continually.
Now some may say that there is no apparent link between Job’s character and his great possessions. That it is only an assumption that God blessed Job so greatly because of his character. But we must read on a little further.
“Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan also came among them. The LORD said to Satan, “From where do you come?” Then Satan answered the LORD and said, “From roaming about on the earth and walking around on it.” The LORD said to Satan, “Have you considered My servant Job? For there is no one like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, fearing God and turning away from evil.” Then Satan answered the LORD, “Does Job fear God for nothing? “Have You not made a hedge about him and his house and all that he has, on every side? You have blessed the work of his hands, and his possessions have increased in the land.
So we do find a link between Job’s character and the blessing of God.
America is so materialistically minded that I do not want us to always think that the blessing of God is only material possessions. Now, the blessing of God may come in material form. Perhaps you have a bill to pay, that you don’t know how it’s going to get paid, but you go to God and ask that He take care of your bill. Because He is our loving father, He does so. Naturally, we say that God has blessed us. We stand up in church and say that, “I had a bill that I could not pay, but God blessed me with the money to pay my bill.” This is true, God has blessed you materially, but God blesses in other ways that are not so physically tangible.
God may bless you with peace in the midst of a storm, He may give you a sense of His presence and His love in your life, He may cause the valleys to rise up before you and every mountain to be lowered. He may bless you with good health, good relationships, and good food to eat. He may
supernaturally protect you as you walk in the crime-infested inner city. But still that leaves us with the question, “What kind of person does God bless?”
God blesses a person of character. We find that God has blessed Job because He is a person of character. The Oxford American Dictionary of Current English defines the word “character” as: “the collective qualities or characteristics, esp. mental and moral that distinguish a person or thing. (2) moral strength.” In other words “character” is the life distinguished, or made known, by moral strength. The three qualities that Job possessed are the same qualities that will be natural to every person of character. They will be blameless, upright, they will fear God and turn away from evil.
Being blameless is not the same as being perfect. To be perfect means that there are no flaws, but to be without blame is to be free from being responsible for a lifestyle of evil. Romans 8:33 says, “Who will bring a charge [or blame] against God’s elect? God is the one who justifies…” No one can bring a charge against a person of character; no one can find gross error in a person of integrity. Scripture says much about being blameless and the blessings that ensue.
David says that the blessing of the blameless will be an eternal inheritance, and that when adverse times arise they will be blessed in accord with the faithfulness of God. Scripture says that the Lord knows how to deliver the righteous from their afflictions, and that He delivers them out of them all. The blameless have the promise that the Lord will give them abundance when there is famine in the land, but the wicked will vanish into thin air.
David also writes in another Psalm, “I will give heed to the blameless way. When will You [speaking of the Lord] come to me? I will walk within my house in the integrity of my heart. [And the Lord answers back:] “My eyes shall be upon the faithful of the land, that they may dwell with me; He who walks in a blameless way is the one who will minister to me.” Those who walk blamelessly will be blessed with Presence of the Lord and that they will be known as a worshipper.
When you do good, when you are upright in heart, God will bless you with exceeding gladness! Proverbs 2:7-8 declares that the Lord “stores up sound wisdom for the upright; He is a shield to those who walk in integrity, Guarding the paths of justice, And He preserves the way of His godly ones.” The Lord will bless the upright with wisdom and will shield them with their integrity from the evil that comes from foolish loose living.
A person of character is one who fears God and turns away from evil. Proverbs 8:13 says that “the fear of the Lord is to hate evil.” Proverbs 19:23 says that “the fear of the LORD leads to life, so that one may sleep satisfied, untouched by evil.” The one who fears the Lord and obeys His commands, and does what is good, will be able to lay his head on his pillow in peace at night because he will not have to fear what this one over here will do to him because he hated him, or what this one over there will do because he slept with his wife. Those that fear God and turn away from evil will be blessed with peace!
Job was a person of character. A person of character is blessed with abundance in the face of famine, is blessed with wisdom, with the presence of God
in their lives, with exceeding joy, and restful peace. God also blesses a person of courage.
We find courage in the heart of Job. What is courage? Sometimes we have to understand the opposite to get the full meaning. The opposite of courage is “discourage” which means “deprived of confidence”. Some trust in horses and chariots, but we trust in the name of the Lord our God. We have confidence in Him. And really what more is confidence than faith? So then discouragement is to be deprived of faith. For when we are discouraged, we in essence say that we do not believe that God will do what He has said He will do. So we find that it is faith that pleases God for Scripture says that without it we cannot please God. And things that are not from faith are sin.
We must be people of faith in order to please God. It is faith that grabs hold to the promises of God and considers them as good as done. Job had great courage despite his pain. Through his misery he still hung onto the goodness of God. When all of his possessions, his cattle, his servants, and his children were taken from him he confidently declared, “The Lord giveth, and the Lord taketh away, blessed be the name of the Lord.” He had courage for his confidence was in the Lord.
Job was struck with sore boils from the sole of his foot to the crown of his head, and his wife said, “Curse God and die”. With great courage he said, “You speak as one of the foolish women speak. Shall we indeed accept good from God
and not accept adversity?” Job’s confidence was in the Lord. Job’s friends chastised him and said, “Remember now, who ever perished being innocent? or where were the upright destroyed? According to what I have seen, those who plow iniquity and those who sow trouble harvest it.” With courage Job declared, “But it is still my consolation, and I rejoice in unsparing pain, that I have not denied the words of the Holy One.” His confidence was in the Lord.
In spite of the loss, the ridicule and accusation, in spite of the sackcloth and ashes, Job courageously declared, “As for me, I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the last He will take His stand on the earth. Even after my skin is destroyed, yet from my flesh I shall see God…” His confidence was in the Lord.
The Lord blesses those who have courage, those who have confidence and faith in God. Scripture repeatedly teaches that God responds to people’s faith. Jehovah told Moses to stretch his staff over the Red Sea and that it would part, and with courageous faith Moses did so, and the waters parted. Joshua was told repeatedly to be strong and very courageous and that he would lead the people to possess the land that God had promised their fathers. It was faith in God that caused little David to stand courageously before a menacing giant and see him fall flat on his face!
Jesus replies to a troubled father of a demon possessed boy that “all things are possible to him who believes.” The Master calls to Peter to step out on the
water, and with great courageous faith Peter obeys. Healing came to the woman with the issue of blood, cleansing came to lepers, and sight to the blind because courageous faith was in the hearts of men and women. Men and women who dared to believe the promises of God.
All that we do in Christ is because of courageous faith. It takes faith to receive the free gift of salvation. It takes faith to be baptized in the Holy Spirit. It takes faith to stand against the onslaught of the Enemy’s fiery darts. It takes faith to live godly in an ungodly world. God blesses courageous faith with what it believes for.
God blesses a person of character. He blesses a person of courage. And finally He blesses a person of commitment. Job was a person of commitment. Regardless of his pain and suffering he did not buckle to the pressures around him and the heaviness in his own soul.
When he first heard the news that all that he owned was stolen and all of his children killed, he did not blame God. He remained committed. How many of us would say, “I’m not going to serve a God that takes away my children and brings me to bankruptcy”? or at least question, “Why God, why did you do this to me?” Job was a person of commitment. He remained faithful when he was struck head to toe with boils. His wife backslid and told him to do likewise. But he remained
committed. When the going gets tough, the committed stay the course. They finish their race.
Paul, knowing that he was soon to be with the Lord commented to Timothy, “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith.” Notice its all past tense: he fought, he finished, and he kept. He finished what he started. He didn’t chicken out. He was committed. He was committed to the cause of Christ. Paul was a blessed man because of his commitment to the Lord. He spoke with angels, saw demons cast out, saw the dead raised, and the sick healed. Paul was blessed by God to plant a church in every major city he visited. God blessed him because he remained committed. He knew that God would bless him with a crown of righteousness because of his commitment to the Lord.
The author of Hebrews wrote “let us run with endurance the race that is set before us” speaking of the Christian life. Endurance speaks of commitment. Let us be committed to run the race. The Christian life is not a sprint, it’s a marathon, and you win a marathon through endurance. You may have to go through some tough times, you might have to run uphill, around pot holes, you might have to run in the rain, but you won’t give up because you are committed. You have said in your heart I’m going to run this marathon and win, I can’t give up!
Scripture says that we will be presented to the Lord blameless if “indeed you continue in the faith firmly established and steadfast, and not moved away from the hope of the gospel that you have heard…” That Greek term for “continue” means to “persevere”, in other words, “to be committed”. We will be presented to the Lord blameless if we remain committed to Him.
We might have to endure persecution, we might have to endure slander by the church gossip, we might have to endure tough times on this earth, but we will not give up because we are committed. We have said in our hearts, “I want to see Jesus and live with Him for eternity I can’t give up!”
It was said that Moses chose “rather to endure ill-treatment with the people of God than to enjoy the passing pleasures of sin, considering the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt; for he was looking to the reward. By faith he left Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king; for he endured, as seeing Him who is unseen.” Moses knew that God would bless him with a great reward for His commitment.
Job was a person of commitment. He remained committed to the Lord. Job may have said things like, “Why is light given to him who suffers, and life to the bitter soul..?” and that God had made him a byword of the people, and that he was one at whom men spit. But Job remained committed to the Lord. He said,
“Nevertheless the righteous will hold to his way, and he who has clean hand will grow stronger and stronger.” Job knew that the committed grew strong because of stress and strain in life. That’s why weight lifters endure with the stress and strain of weightlifting, because they know that being committed will make them strong. “No pain, no gain.” they say.
When Job’s troubles began he said, “the Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away, blessed be the name of the Lord.” He remained committed. Though his wife and his closest of friends came against him he said, “I know that my Redeemer lives…yet from my flesh I shall see God.” Job was a person of commitment because he knew that God remained committed to them, for he calls Him his Redeemer.
God blessed Job because he was a person of commitment. He restored to Job two-fold of what he had had before his trouble began. God blesses a person of commitment in the end with more than what they began with. A marathon runner wins a crown of victory, and the weightlifter gains more muscle mass. They receive more in the end because of their commitment. God blesses a person of character, a person of courage, and a person of commitment.
Those three are linked arm in arm. Character is linked arm and arm with commitment because character says, “Regardless of what may happen to me,
I’m going to stick by (or be committed to) the truth, and be a person who does the right thing.” Courage is linked arm in arm to commitment because courage says, regardless of how things may appear, I’m gonna do it. Though the waves are crashing and the wind is blowing, I’m getting out of the boat to walk on the water! God blesses a person of character. He blesses them with peace, joy, abundance, and His presence. God blesses a person of courage with what they’ve had faith for. He allows them to possess what the arm of faith has grasped. God blesses a person of commitment with more in the end than in the beginning. When they have run their race, they will receive their prize.
