In our various churches today, if it is possible to take a peer into the mind of the average Christian, it is sure that the numbers of those whose minds are fixed on getting blessings will be more than those who come with a heart focused on plain worship. However, it is not a sin to ask for blessings from God. In fact blessings are in different types; for example, the word of God that comes undiluted with the help of the Holy Spirit is a blessing to us as children of God, albeit it is in spiritual form. When prophecies come out or we receive spiritual directions from words of knowledge or wisdom, it is a blessing but in a spiritual form. But as humans, we tend to yearn for blessings that come in tangible form and this is not bad either because we are physical beings. And glory be to God that we seek them from God. Seeking them from God means that God is a God of blessing, or that blesses. But does God just throw blessings? No! This is because God is an endless school. The learning you will learn of him is equivalent to the eternal life in him that never ends. There are principles about blessings in the kingdom of God that you must learn and know. A look at the book of Joshua 1 vs. 8 revealed how God told Joshua and the children of Israel to keep the book of the Law in their mouths, and how they should meditate in it day and night and be careful to observe all things written inside, and by that, their ways will become prosperous and they will have good success.
Now, to us in this age, this serves as the word of God, Bible (scriptures). We must be able to see the power of prosperity in the word of God. We must know the word of God and be erudite containers of the word of God. This is so that we can apply what we know effectively. God sees our devotions and faith toward this, and he is able to bless us. The word of God is able to restrain our feet from the ways of evil so that we will not be consumed before our days of glory. And this means that there is a time for everything; but if someone is not guided by the word of God, how will such be preserved before the time that God had appointed to bless him? We all know the answer to the question.
Another way for the blessing of God to come to us is by having pure heart and clean hands and not lift up our soul to vanity. You will see the clarification to this in Psalm 24:1-5. What is vanity or idol? It is that thing that doesn’t endure the passage of time; they are worthless things that people give great admiration to. Those who have lifted up their soul to vanity will rather die than not getting what they want. Please, take note that we all use material things and they are things that perish. But lifting up soul to vanity is when you would want to gain all these material things at the cost of valuable things like virtues, dignities, respect et cetera. It is just like Esau that sold his birth right because of food, and he even swore an oath to seal the deal, (Genesis 25:29-34). Vanities are things adored so much by us that we can throw away God and use any possible means to get them. They can even be self-adoration and vain glories. In a nut-shell, a person with vanity won’t receive the blessing from God. Whatever blessing a vain person possesses will be the ones gotten by the proceeds of iniquity which of course isn’t pure. So, a pure heart, and clean hands brings the blessing of God closer to his children.
So, here we are talking about the blessings that comes to us because of our obedience to God. Obedience to God makes us righteous before him, while disobedience makes us wicked. It is such that was seen in the promise of God to Abraham after he obeyed God’s voice in going ahead to sacrifice his son Isaac, hence, God promised to bless him and his descendants forever, (Genesis 22:18). Also, we mustn’t forget that this is the same with the teachings of Jesus that admonished us to seek the kingdom of God firstly before other things because other things shall be added to us after we have gotten the righteousness of God. And lastly, it will do you good to always remember the words of this scripture, “Blessings are on the head of the righteous, but violence covers the mouth of the wicked. The memory of the righteous is blessed, but the name of the wicked will rot, (Proverbs 10:6-7, NKJV).