As we’re nearing the end of our study on Hannah, I’ve been thinking about what a blessed life is.  Can we call Hannah’s life a blessed life and if we can, since what point of her life can we call it blessed?  We often hear testimonies from folks who point to a specific place and time where their lives began to be blessed.  They usually associate God’s blessing with a better income, a better health, or anything else that makes their lives better or happier.  If that’s the criterion, we can’t then say that Hannah’s life before the birth of Samuel was blessed.  But is it true that she wasn’t blessed while she was barren?

I think most of you will agree that Hannah’s life was blessed before she had Samuel.  Even while she painfully endured the derogatory comments from Peninnah and perhaps others around her, she was blessed.  If we can agree on this, we can then agree that we should have a more accurate definition of a blessed life.  First, let’s agree on what a blessed life is NOT: It’s not prosperity, not luck, it is not success, it’s not getting what we pray for, it’s not a life without pain. 

So, what IS a blessed life?  A blessed life is a life where we can see and experience the power and the lovingkindness of God. Simply put, a blessed life is a SHARED life with God.  It is a life where not only do we walk together with God, but it is also a life where we and God share a life together, where His heartbeat becomes ours, and where His love becomes ours, and where His Spirit becomes ours.

In his book, Knowing Christ Today, in his commentary on Matthew 5:20, Dallas Willard explains, “Entering the kingdom of the heavens as here spoken of, is clearly not a matter of ‘making it into heaven’ after death . . . It is precisely a matter of being interactively engaged with the kingdom in your life now.”  That’s what a blessed life is.  It is a life we share with God, where we’re actively engaged with Him.

Pastor Paul