5 Ways You Might Be Blocking Your Own Blessings

Here are five ways that you might actually be blocking God’s blessings.

Not Being a Blessing

Jesus said that whoever gives, it will be given back to them, in fact, so much as to be spilling over into the lap. Jesus stated as a simple cause and effect. Just “give, and it will be given to you. Good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap. For with the measure you use it will be measured back to you” (Luke 6:38). You can’t expect God’s blessing if you’re not being a blessing for God.

Not Forgiving

We know that if we don’t forgive others, God will not forgive us, so if we’ve have something against someone, God has something against us. Un-forgiveness is like drinking one’s own poison and hoping the other person dies from it. If this un-forgiveness is left unchecked, it can become established, and then a “root of bitterness springs up and causes trouble, and by it many become defiled” (Heb 12:5).

Discontentment

We can live in only one of two tents in life; contentment, or discontentment. One is not much fun to live in, but the other is considerably better. The Bible teaches “godliness with contentment is great gain” (1st Tim 6:6), but the Apostle Paul knew it didn’t come easy and so he said, “I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content” (Phil 4:11). And Paul was often in a state of peril, famine, hunger, cold, beatings, being stoned, and imprisoned, and once left for dead, yet he had learned to be content, “in whatever situation I am.” How do you learn contentment? Lots of practice, and Paul had more than his fair share of it.

Unconfessed Sin

I’m not sure why it’s hard for some people to confess their sins to God, but God won’t be able to bless the person that is living in a state of sin without having repentance. The psalmist wrote, “If I had cherished iniquity in my heart, the Lord would not have listened” (Psalm 66:18), since “If one turns away his ear from hearing the law, even his prayer is an abomination” (Prov 28:9). Why not confess your sins right now, because “if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9).

Grace and Truth

Jesus said we must worship God in spirit and in truth (John 4:24), so it’s important that we worship God in ways that are revealed in the Bible. Jesus was full of grace and truth (John 1:14). He had the perfect mixture. He always spoke the truth but knew when to speak grace. Sometime He spoke the truth, as with the Pharisees, but the woman caught in adultery needed to hear about grace. If you only have truth, then that’s legalism; if you only have grace, then that’s a license to sin; but if you have grace and truth, you won’t be blocking God’s blessings.

Conclusion

Maybe you can think of others ways that we might be blocking God’s blessings. I know that God is opposed to the proud and will give His grace only to the humble (James 4:6), so pride could block God’s blessings, just like not forgiving could, being discontented, having unconfessed sins, so my precious sisters and brothers in Christ, May God richly bless each one of you.