"You will be blessed". The sign that we are blessed by God is that we become a blessing to others. This was the promise given to Abraham. Joseph was blessed by God, so he brought blessing to the whole nation of Egypt and to Israel. Moses was blessed, and he brought release from captivity to the Israelites. Daniel was blessed, and he brought blessing even to Nebuchadnezzar. Most of all, Jesus was blessed and He brought salvation to all who believe.
Wherever we are, wherever we go, we are blessed by God. We need to live continually under the covering of Christ, living in Christ. Then we will be people through whom He can bring His blessing to many others.
There is no guarantee that enemies will not rise up against us, quite the opposite in fact, but there is a promise that they will flee from us. Resist the devil and he will flee, as James says.
When we read promise like those in v1-14 some get carried away with me,me,me thoughts. Others react against it, because they fear that it will lead to greed and self-centredness. We have these reactions because we have a wrong impression of prosperity and blessing. As I have been saying in this post and the previous one, the true test of blessedness is whether we are a blessing to others. In the same way we react against authority and teachings such as man being the head of the woman. We do this because we have a wrong idea of authority.
If we want to know what authority and blessedness really mean we need to look at the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the embodiment of both and a demonstration of what godly authority and blessing means.
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