4 Things That (Usually) Happen Before God Blesses You

Romans 4:20-21

What needs to happen before God will bless you?

Scripture is clear that God’s blessings are given by God’s grace. If we earned something from God, it would not be a blessing because we would just be getting what we deserve.

So when we talk about the things that usually happen before God blesses us, we have to make sure we do not slip into unbiblical thinking and start believing that if we do these certain things God must bless us with what we want.

The last point of clarification is that we should insert the word “usually” before each of these points because certainly each situation has different variables involved. But normally, before God will bless you with what you are asking of him, these 4 things need to happen first.

1. Before God Will Bless You, You Will Need to Faithfully Go Through a Season of Waiting

One pattern in Scripture that appears over and over again is that God makes a promise but then he makes the recipient of that promise go through a season of waiting before he fulfills that promise.

For example, between Genesis 12 when God made his promise to Abraham and Genesis 21 when God fulfilled his promise to Abraham by giving him his son Isaac, 25 years had passed. In Romans 4:20-21 it states, “No unbelief made [Abraham] waver concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God, fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised.”

This same pattern can be seen in the life of Joseph who received a promise from God. After God gave him a promise, however, Joseph then found himself in a pit after he was betrayed by his brothers, only to then find himself as a slave in Potiphar’s house, and to then be thrown into prison. It was years later before Joseph saw God’s promises fulfilled.

Again and again this pattern of waiting before being blessed is seen in the Bible. David was anointed to be king many years before he actually became king. Moses wandered the desert for 40 years before God used him to set his people free. And all Christians still look to the future for the total fulfillment of all God’s promises that he has made to us as can be seen in Revelations 21.

So if you want to receive God’s blessings, you have to be faithful to God in the season of waiting that will usually come before the blessing.

For more on this important topic, you may want to watch my video called 4 Reasons God Is Making You Go Through a Season of Waiting. You can tap the card in the right corner of your screen or you can go to the description of this video for a list of recommend videos I will leave there.

2. Before God Will Bless You, You Will Need to Go Through a Season of Testing

Just as God usually makes us wait to receive his blessings, oftentimes we also need to go through a period of testing as well. God does not test us to make us fail. Rather, God allows tests in our life so we have opportunities to bring him glory as we rely on his grace for deliverance (1 Peter 1:6-7).

While we might desire for God to make a promise to us and then instantly fulfill that promise, what usually occurs is that we need to first go through some valleys before we can reach the peaks we desire. Through the testing, God also strengthens us and matures us so we are prepared to rightly handle the blessings once the time to receive them finally comes.

For more on this topic, you may want to watch my video called 3 Signs God Is Testing You.

3. Before God Will Bless You, Usually He Will Increase Your Faith First

One of the main reasons God puts his people through seasons of waiting and tests before he fulfills his promises to them is that God works through our faith. When God blesses people with gifts who don’t have faith, those people do not give God the glory for those blessings.

However, when we have deep faith in God’s goodness and then we experience God’s goodness, we are then much better equipped to give God all the glory for the good he has brought into our lives through this blessing. As James 1:6-7 states:

But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind. For that person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord.”

Just before this verse on the connection between answered prayer and faith, James 1:2-4 teaches us about the connection between tests and strengthening our faith:

“Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.”

So if you are waiting on God for a blessing, you should expect to go through seasons that cause your faith to actually be increased.

4. Before God Will Bless You, He Will Transform Your Understanding of What His Blessings Actually Look Like

Perhaps the most overlooked step that needs to occur before God’s blessings will reign down on you is a season of clarification. Most Christians know that God loves them, but many of us have been misled about how God shows his love for us. Before God will bless you with his promises, oftentimes he needs to first teach us what those promises actually are.

God has not promised us wealth, health, and prosperity during our short times on earth. Certainly these types of material blessings are given by God sometimes. But these are not always going to occur in our lives and God has not promised they would. Rather, God has promised eternal riches to those who follow Jesus Christ through both the peaks and the valleys we all must go through on earth. Sometimes God actually gives us a blessing but our understanding of blessings is so underdeveloped that we can’t even recognize this gift God just gave us.

Some of God’s greatest promises of pleasure come gift-wrapped in seasons of suffering and pain. But when we remain faithful to Christ, the seed of God’s blessing grows in our life and over time we reap the rewards God gives to those who are faithful to him.

So before God will bless you, he will often transform your understanding of what his blessings actually look like. Let me close with one of the most clarifying and motivating parts of Scripture when it comes to readjusting our understanding of a true blessing from God. Philippians 3:7-11 proclaims:

But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith— that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead.”