Touré Roberts - The Blessed Life

All right, let’s get into this—the blessed life. The blessed life is the most amazing, fulfilling, and refreshing way to live. It is to live as one who has the sense of identity that not only am I blessed, but I am a blessing. To have the mission of your life, hallelujah, is not simply to get blessed but to give blessings.

Now, where we struggle with living in that space is sometimes in the disbelief that we’re blessed. It’s hard for me to fully, authentically, and genuinely embrace the identity of being a blessing if I feel like I still need a little bit of blessing myself. Okay, now we’re going to have a real conversation—we won’t do this in a cute, churchy way. We’ll have an honest dialogue right now. We’ll say, «Yes, I want to be a blessing, ” but the reality of our day-to-day lives is often us trying to get blessed. You tracking with me?

I want to show you something in Scripture that will hopefully put to rest the internal argument that you and I might have about being blessed. I think there’s something in the earlier chapters of Genesis that’s really going to bless you, so let’s look at it. It’s in Genesis chapter 1, verses 27 and 28. You might miss something in it if you just skim over it. It says, „So God created humankind in His own image; in the image of God, He created humankind, male and female He created them.“ Then it says, „Then God blessed them, and God said to them, ‘Be fruitful and multiply, fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.’“

So, God basically calls and commands His creation to do something far bigger than themselves. Remember, it’s just the two of them, and He says, „Now, the two of you, I want you to subdue this immense earth that you haven’t even fully grasped yet. I want you to subdue it and populate it.“ They didn’t even know what multiplication was; all they knew was themselves. „I need you. I’m calling you to this task that is greater than who you are.“

And if we look at that, He doesn’t give them this command until He does something in them first. If we go back to the text, it says, „Then God blessed them, ” and then He said, „Do such and such”—do this great thing.

Have you ever felt like life requires more of you than you’re able to give? Don’t make me come down there and talk to you! I’m gonna drive right down your street, pull up to your front door, sit down at your table, open your refrigerator, pour a bowl of Cheerios, and talk to you today! Has anyone ever felt that what God is asking of you is bigger than who you are? But the incredible thing this text reveals is that God does not challenge them with this great task until it says He blessed them. It was in Him blessing them that He had the right to ask for something beyond them.

Now, that word „blessed“ is an interesting one; it’s the Hebrew word „Barak,“ which literally means to bless, but it also means to praise and has this notion of kneeling. It literally means to kneel. That word is used concerning our praising God, right? We „Barak“ God. We bless Him, we extol Him, we kneel to Him, and we acknowledge His magnificence and greatness. We „Barak“ God. So, it’s appropriate for us, just as it is written so many times in the Psalms, that we bless God and praise God.

But here, this blessing goes in the opposite direction. Once God creates us in His own image, before He gives us any instruction to be great, it says that God „Barak“ us—He blesses us. He praises us, and this idea of kneeling is present in that action. It sounds crazy and may even sound like false teaching, but it’s actually true—study and look it up! God Himself, after He creates us in His image and likeness, before He tells us to rule as He rules and have dominion, blesses us.

But not just a casual, „God bless you“ like we say to each other—“Oh, bless you.» That’s not a «Barak.» That’s merely a pleasantry. No, for God to bless you is something much more profound; it is to impart something onto you that is so wonderful and divine that God has to kneel before it. Are you catching this? God gave you something. You are blessed for real! Simply by being created in the image and likeness of God means that there is something about you that God recognizes, and even God has to give it up for you.