Am I Blessed?

Have you ever noticed how often the word blessing gets mixed up with success?
As though being blessed automatically means things are working, money is flowing, and life feels comfortable.

I’ve heard this a lot lately and honestly, it’s been bothering me.

I think it’s such a tricky topic because our culture’s definition of success and blessing is wildly different from the Bible’s definition.
We tend to define blessing as comfort, wealth, or favorable circumstances.

But biblically, blessing has far more to do with your covenant relationship with God than with what your life looks like on the outside.

That’s why this has been so personal for me.

My family is coming out of one of the hardest wilderness seasons we’ve ever experienced and yet, I can say without hesitation that I’ve felt more blessed in this season than in some of the most abundant seasons of our life.

Which is why, when I hear blessing talked about as material gain, something in me pushes back.

Because biblically, blessing isn’t comfort — it’s covenant empowerment to fulfill what God has called you to do.

And here’s the hard truth we don’t like to talk about:
Your purpose in a season may require your discomfort.

Look at Job. He lost everything and yet Job 42:12 says he was blessed.
Joseph was sold into slavery, falsely imprisoned, and forgotten — and Scripture still calls him blessed.
Paul was beaten, shipwrecked, imprisoned and yet undeniably lived a blessed life.

Those kinds of blessings don’t sell well.

The Hebrew word for blessing is barak (בָּרַךְ) — which means to bless, to kneel, or to praise.
The same word is used for blessing and kneeling.

In other words, blessing flows from right posture.
Not because kneeling earns blessing but because blessing exists inside covenant alignment.

When we kneel, when we acknowledge God as our authority — He becomes our covenant head.
And from that place, He provides exactly what we need for the assignment He’s given us.

Not necessarily what we want.
Not always what feels comfortable.
But what He knows we need in that season.

That’s why blessing, biblically, looks more like this:

• God’s presence

• God’s attention

• God’s empowerment

• God’s peace

None of that is earned.
It’s received.

That’s why I can honestly say our wilderness season was deeply blessed.

It didn’t look like a big payday.
It looked like God providing exactly what we needed — right when we needed it.

It didn’t look like our business growing.
It looked like our faith and dependence growing.

It wasn’t easy.
But it was deeply forming.

Our culture would probably say, “That doesn’t sound blessed.”
But we had God’s presence, protection, and provision — so I would say it absolutely was.

I think, like most things, this comes down to focus.

Our culture looks for blessings in things.
But biblically, the blessing is the relationship with God and everything we need for that season flows from it.

Remember Solomon.
What did he ask for? Wisdom.
He wanted to lead well and obey God’s assignment for his life.

God gave him wealth too — but that wasn’t Solomon’s goal.
Desiring good things isn’t the problem.
The order of those desires is what matters.

When we desire created things more than a relationship with the Creator, that’s where trouble begins.

I won’t lie — there are days this doesn’t feel blessed.
There are moments I wonder if we’re crazy.
There are times I long for secure housing and predictable income.

But I’m learning that feeling blessed and being blessed are not always the same thing.

The Israelites in the wilderness probably didn’t feel blessed — but they were.
Jesus in the wilderness probably didn’t feel blessed — but He was.
Paul with his thorn probably didn’t feel blessed — but he was.

And I’m starting to believe that these wilderness seasons, the ones marked by dependence, may be some of the most blessed seasons of our lives.

Not because they’re easy.
But because God is present, active, and forming something we could never build ourselves.

So what if we stopped measuring blessing by circumstances
and started measuring it by covenant?

What if we stopped asking:

• “Do I have enough?”

• “Am I successful?”

• “Is life comfortable?”

And started asking:

• “Am I walking with God?”

• “Is He present in this season?”

• “Am I positioned where He’s called me to be?”

You might be:

• In the wilderness

• In a tent season, longing for permanence

• Lacking materially while learning trust

• Obeying God at personal cost

But if God is with you,
if you are living in covenant relationship with Him,
if you are positioned where He has called you —

You are blessed.

Not eventually.
Not when circumstances improve.
Now.

Ephesians 1:3 says:
“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places.”

Past tense.
Already done.
Complete.

The wilderness doesn’t change that.
Lack doesn’t change that.
Suffering doesn’t change that.

So maybe the real question isn’t:
“Am I blessed?”

But rather:
“Do I believe I’m blessed, even when my circumstances say otherwise?”