Hi, and welcome to Jesus Over Everything, a short practical podcast that mixes encouragement,

the Bible, how-toes, and fantastic interviews for the listener on the go.

I'm Lisa Whittle, and I welcome you to just a few minutes with me, which I trust and pray will be time well spent.

Okay, folks, we've got a big one for you today on the Joe Devo show talking about the phrases

Christians love.

That's our series, remember, for January and February.

And is there any phrase we love more or have overused more than hashtag blessed?

Yeah, I don't think so either.

We use it when we post a beautiful vacation picture or when we update our status to having gotten a raise or tweeting about getting an upgrade to first class on our flight.

Although, that's never happened to me, but I'd sure take it.

It's funny, we make light of it, and I'm not trying to get too serious here, but I have to admit that the word blessed is what I've been busting on for years since I wrote my book, I want God, actually, and

dedicated an entire chapter to it. Prosperity Gospel has made a comeback recently. Lots of feelings

about that and the word blessed. We can't get into all of it on the show, but I thought I'd

dive in and we talk about it for at least a few minutes. So let's do that now.

I want to say this right off the bat. The way most of us view the word blessed comes from a few things, I think.

Our denominational background, our current situation, and our understanding of scripture, emphasis, I would say, on one and two. I've personally been a part of three different denominations in my life in some regard, and I know them to be quite different in the

way they view and use the word blessed. So there is a strong denominationaly cultural component here,

if you will. As well, our current situation plays into it.

Blast looks very different to a person who just got an all-clear on their cancer checkup than it

does to say a person who just upgraded their 2019 card to a 2020. If you have been out of work for two years and you finally

got a job and you're able to finally pay your bills, your definition of blessed looks very

different than someone who got an airline upgrade. And I don't know about you, but I've often

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