Are God’s blessing physical or spiritual?

Answer:

"I returned and saw under the sun that-The race is not to the swift, Nor the battle to the strong, Nor bread to the wise, Nor riches to men of understanding, Nor favor to men of skill; But time and chance happen to them all" (Ecclesiastes 9:11).

The book of Job tells how Satan desired to prove that people only serve God because of His blessings. Job was used as an example. "So Satan answered the LORD and said, "Does Job fear God for nothing? Have You not made a hedge around him, around his household, and around all that he has on every side? You have blessed the work of his hands, and his possessions have increased in the land. Have You not made a hedge around him, around his household, and around all that he has on every side? You have blessed the work of his hands, and his possessions have increased in the land"" (Job 1:9-11). God gave Satan permission to test Job. Job's friends are certain that Job must have sinned because that is the only reason they could think of as a reason for God to remove His blessings and punish Job. They were wrong. Job's trials were not a direct result of his spiritual state. They were a test.

Asaph had the opposite problem. He saw that wicked people sometimes had very good lives. "For I was envious of the boastful, When I saw the prosperity of the wicked. For there are no pangs in their death, But their strength is firm. They are not in trouble as other men, Nor are they plagued like other men" (Psalm 73:3-5). But eventually, he realized that their apparent success was only temporary. "If I had said, "I will speak thus," Behold, I would have been untrue to the generation of Your children. When I thought how to understand this, It was too painful for me- until I went into the sanctuary of God; Then I understood their end. Surely You set them in slippery places; You cast them down to destruction. Oh, how they are brought to desolation, as in a moment! They are utterly consumed with terrors" (Psalms 73:15-18). Yet the problem remains that just because someone is successful at the moment, it doesn't necessarily mean that God is blessing them for living righteously.

Jesus told us that God "makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust" (Matthew 5:45). All good blessings come from God. "Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning" (James 1:17). Yet, many of those blessings are given to all of mankind equally.

So when you find yourself blessed, it is because the Father is showing kindness to you. It is because of God that you have the skills and the opportunities to use those skills. What you cannot conclude, however, is that those blessings are there because you deserve them.