For introduction

What then is blessing? And: who doesn’t want to be blessed? Simply being blessed and drawing from the full – I can well imagine that. That is what I wish for. I want to see beautiful things, feel good and healthy and I want to be well in everything. To experience this would be something like an encouragement that becomes visible in reality. I also have this desire. It is an entirely human desire.

Blessing is something good. Everyone wants to experience good. What is really good for us is not always apparent at first glance. My view of the world and of my own life has always needed new insights. What is perceived as good is just my perception. It is strongly influenced by my experiences. What you are thankful for and what you feel is a blessing doesn’t seem to be the same for everyone.

Because I take the Bible and its statements to heart, I understand that real blessing comes from God. I recognize this in the words of James:

“Every good giving and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no change, no change to shadow”
(KNT, Jas 1:17).

Any good giving, I learn here, is like a perfect gift, like a gift with no downside. Divine blessing is like a perfect gift. Divine blessing is also without change, as God Himself is constant. Those who feel blessed can move forward in life and see that things continue. There is confidence in it. Blessing is the epitome of all good things. In the language of the New Testament, the Greek, the word blessing is eulogia, which literally translates as “well-word” or “good-word”. He who blesses pronounces a good word. Those who are blessed receive a good word.

Experience blessing?

With all these positive statements, isn’t it natural to include such things as welfare, health, and joy? Wouldn’t these also be good things that should be accompanied by God’s blessing? These are understandable questions and answering them can help us find a way in life and in faith.

But let us then also ask the counter-question: What now, if our life once does not look so “blessed”? What if hardship and suffering, death and illness, loss and pain come your way? Then, am I to deduce that I am not blessed? Or even that God has withdrawn from me? Then what about my understanding of God’s blessing? If the wind blows not from behind but from the front, how are we to understand this? Sometimes it can help to ask yourself these questions. It can even do you good to endure them. It is worth enduring difficult questions so that better answers may come. Perhaps then we would have to ask ourselves: are we making a proper link when we equate God’s nearness with visible blessing?

First, let’s look at a case where this was actually the case.

The prayer of Jabez

There is the amazing story of Jabez in the Bible. Only two Bible verses speak of him, but these two verses have it all. Jabez says a prayer there. This “Prayer of Jabez” made waves in Christian circles a few years ago. It was on everyone’s lips. Devotional books, flyers, brochures, postcards appeared – all with the prayer of Jabez as content.

The story reads as follows:

“Jabez was more respected than his brothers; indeed his mother had given him the name Jabez, for she said, With pain have I born him. But Jabez had cried unto the God of Israel, saying, That thou wouldest bless me, and enlarge my coast, and that thy hand would be with me, and that thou wouldest keep evil from me, that no pain should befall me. And God brought what he had asked for.
1 Chr 4:9-10

In fact, it is a remarkable story. On the one hand, it is remarkable because of the story itself. But then the story is also remarkable because it is told so extremely briefly and succinctly.

Jabez’s name echoes the word for “pain. “ It is a play on words of the mother who gave him the name. Because “his mother had given him the name Jabez, because she said: With pain I gave birth to him”. However, this is not the end of the story. Although the name reflected the experience of the mother, the son contrasts it with something. “But Jabez had cried unto the God of Israel, saying, That thou wouldst bless me, and enlarge my coast, and that thy hand would be with me, and thou wouldest keep evil from me, that no hurt should befall me!” So the son does not just take the burden of his name, but worships God, the God of Israel, that He would bless him, He would make it well with him, that no evil or pain would befall him.

Pain

The name Jabez (hb. יַעְבֵּץ֙) echoes the Hebrew “with/in pain” from the same phrase (hb. בְּעֹֽצֶב, be-ozeb, a borrowing and reversal of letters to Jaezeb).

E.W. Bullinger points out in a footnote of the Companion Bible that the reversal of the letters as a deliberate play on words could also indicate a change in experience. Although Jabez was born with pain, however, the mother wishes him the opposite. Bullinger writes: “The transposition of letters in Heb. may intimate a change of experiences, and mean ‘may he have pain or grief reversed'” ).

The name Jabez refers to the pain of childbirth. This reminds us of the account from the first book of Moses, where it says:

“To the woman he said, I will greatly increase the travail of your pregnancy; with pain you shall bear children…”
Gen 3:16

The fulfillment of prayer

What is amazing is what Jabez learns after his prayer:

“And God caused to come what he had asked.”

It’s as simple as that. Or at least: It seems that simple. For God’s answer here comes posthaste and without reservations. God gives Jabez what he has prayed for. With this, Jabez rises to one of the front places in the “list of successful believers”, if one could speak of it. Of course, there is no such list. However, I observe and hear again and again that “blessing” and “success in faith” are linked. When you do that, you also fuel comparisons with others. Already the list of successes is created in thought. And not only this – just a visible blessing is highly valued. In some events and sermons, it seems to me that “blessings” are often cited as “barometers of success.” Woe betide you if your faith is not colored by spectacular stakes. Jabez seems to have gotten it all effortlessly.

But – does that apply to me now, and to everyone else? It is legitimate to question this critically. Are “success in faith” and “visible and tangible blessing” really that important in the Bible? Or are we trying to portray something here that does not even exist in the Bible? Because in the Bible, not all are named Jabez, and to my knowledge there is no other comparable story. On the contrary, many stories in the Bible have a completely different course.

Do we need a belief in success?
Does it take miracles for our faith to feel “right”?
Do we live from prayer increase to prayer increase?
Or is it about completely different things?

It is noticeable that the story of Jabez is only two verses short. An entire book, on the other hand, is devoted to Job’s suffering. These are opposites that we can see again and again in the Bible. Opposites are what we encounter in the world itself. What remains striking: Jabez is doing well and with not a word we read more about him – as if his story was not further interesting. However, people who experience suffering are always mentioned.

To the church at Corinth, Paul writes, “And if one member suffers, all the members suffer with it” 1 Cor. 12:26. From this it is clear that suffering is very much something normal that belongs to this world and also to a normal life of faith. It will not always be loud sunshine in the normal case. Paul writes about his own experience: “…my persecutions, my sufferings that happened to me in Antioch, in Iconium, in Lystra. These persecutions I endured, and from all of them the Lord saved me.” 2 Tim 3:11. This is an interesting statement: although he was not spared the difficulties, he experienced salvation in them. What is the blessing now?

Not see, but believe

In sharp contrast to a misleading belief in success are the words of Jesus himself. After his resurrection he appears again and again to different disciples. But not everyone believes the stories.

“Now Thomas, one of the Twelve [Aposteln], who was called Didymus, was not with them when Jesus came. The other disciples then reported to Him, “We have seen the Lord!” However, he told them, “Unless I keep the mark of the nails in His hands and put my finger in the mark of the nails and my hand in His side (cf. Jn 19:34), I will by no means believe”.
After eight days His disciples were back inside, and Thomas was with them. Then Jesus came in with the doors closed, stood in their midst and said, “Peace be with you!” Then He said to Thomas, “Reach out your finger and guard My hands; then reach out your hand and place it in My side, and be not faithless, but believing! Thomas answered Him, “My Lord and My God!” But Jesus said to him, “Because you have seen Me, you have believed. Blessed are those who do not perceive and yet believe.””
John 20:24-29 (KNT, Concordant New Testament)

Paul later testifies in his second letter to the Corinthians:

“…We walk here by faith and not by perception.”
2 Cor. 5:7 (KNT)

Perception, visible successes, are not a measure for us today. For Israel, there were “signs and wonders” (witnessed mainly in the Gospels and Acts) as an indication of the Messianic kingdom. They experienced the “powers of the future aeon (age)”(Heb. 6:5). But this time has not yet been fulfilled. Blessings today are of a very different nature.

How we are blessed

The apostle Paul, whose life was not at all about roses, holds enormous riches. To the church in Rome he writes:

“But I know that (when I come to you) I will come in the completion of the blessing of Christ.”
Rom 15:29 (KNT)

Isn’t that what we want? Experience the completion of Christ’s blessing? This is more than the fullness of the blessing, for it is the completion of the fullness to the complete fullness. It includes everything that is still missing. It is the “fulfillment” of the full measure. With this, Paul wants to come to the Romans. This brings him to the community. With this, he also comes to us. But what exactly is meant by this? It is best to read a statement in its own context. In this case, it is the Letter to the Romans. It is striking that there is no prosperity or success gospel in the Epistle to the Romans. The Gospel does not speak of our happiness or unhappiness, but of God. It speaks of how He works into this world. In the Gospel, it is not we who are central, but God Himself. When Paul speaks of completing Christ’s blessing, it is in the wake of this Gospel, the core message of which is that God is for us(Rom 8:31-32).

In a circular letter to the churches, Paul writes:

“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who blesses us with every spiritual blessing …”
Ephesians 1:3 (KNT)

Here we read that God blesses with spiritual blessings. At least this is how Paul understood it for himself and for the church in Ephesus. He could say that the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ “ blessesus with every spiritual blessing …”. There the apostle himself is involved. It is something he sees for himself and for the community in the same way. It is like a common ground on which they stand – a ground so rich, in fact, that it “blesses back” this God. Blessing or blessing is mentioned several times in this verse. It is God who blesses, certainly, but Paul also blesses. Paul blesses God in response to the blessing he and the church have received. We would like to understand blessing as flowing to us. But it may also flow back.

The Gospel does not speak of our happiness or unhappiness, but of God. It speaks of how He works into this world. In the Gospel, it is not we who are central, but God Himself.

Where we are blessed

In the words that follow, he also describes where this blessing is imparted. It says: “…who blesses us with every spiritual blessing in the midst of the super-heavenly ones in Christ”. (Eph 1:3) The place is “in the midst of the celestials” and there even more precisely “in Christ”. In Him we are blessed. Spiritually, we are where He is. God blesses us, and we can reflect that blessing.

Paul also describes our experience and situation well in the following passage:

“For God who commanded, ‘Out of darkness let light shine,’ makes it shine in our hearts to the brightness of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, so that the extraordinary of power may prove to be of God and not of us: pressed in all things but not straitened, perplexed but not despairing, persecuted but not forsaken, cast down but not perished. (…)
That is why we are not discouraged but even though our outer man is corrupted, our inner man is renewed day by day. For the momentary lightness of our tribulation brings about for us an aeonian weightiness of glory that surpasses everything and leads to the surpassing, since we do not pay attention to what is glimpsed, but to what is not glimpsed. For what is glimpsed is short-lived; but what is not glimpsed is aeonian.”
2 Cor 4:6-18

This is real blessing in this world.