What is blessing and cursing?
Problem
We tend to think that when we get what we consider to be good things, that we are being blessed. Historically, God promised for the nation of Israel that one of the signs of his blessing was material wealth.
Is either of these ideas true for Christians? What does it mean to be blessed by God?
Answer
Material wealth was a sign historically to the Israelites of blessing from God, but it was not the only sign. The blessing God told the priests to say regularly to the people was, "The LORD bless you and keep you; the LORD make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you; the LORD turn his face toward you and give you peace." (Numbers 6:24)
The priestly blessing was that God would turn his face toward his people (and not turn away); it was that God would shine his face toward the Israelites and be gracious to them. These are images of favor in relationship. (In contrast, a face turned away is an image of rejection of relationship.) God being gracious toward them is God living his values of sacrificial love toward them.
Finally, the blessing was that God would give them peace. The context where God gave them the blessing was not about war (or avoiding war). The context was the establishment of their religious setting; it was of God's relationship to the people. Peace in relationship is opposite of conflict. Conflict in relationship always comes from conflict in values. So this blessing was that God would give his values to the people, so that they would be shared values, so that they and God would be at peace with each other.
As Christians today, we have a new covenant with God. The old covenant to the nation of Israel does not apply to us (and certainly so if we are not Jewish). God's promises to them of material wealth as a sign of God's blessing also then doesn't apply to us. Instead, we are citizens of God's Kingdom which is non-physical, and non-earthly; material things have no direct value in God's Kingdom.
God's goal in his Kingdom is his people living his value system. Material wealth can get in the way of that goal. So can other distractions of this world. Our selfish values get in the way of that goal.
God blesses us as he guides us to adopt his value system into our life, so that we can have deeper relationship with him. Sometimes God takes away some of the distractions of this world from us so that we can learn from him lessons that he is teaching us. And as he does that to us, he is still blessing us.
Those that are cursed by God do not have relationship with him. In the time of the Israelites, the people were cursed when they rejected God by their disobedience to his laws. We were never under that religious/political system of laws, however we cannot avoid God's curse if we reject his value system (which is the law of his Kingdom). The final example of being cursed by God will be hell because it is primarily a place of isolation from his presence.
However, our God is kind and generous. When Jesus came, he took God's curse for us. (This happened when God cut off relationship with Jesus while he was on the cross.)
Our God is not cruel: he loves us deeply, so we do not need to fear what might come to us in this life because love casts out fear. And God's great blessing to us that we have relationship with him through Christ.
The value system perspective used here is based on ideas from the work of Darren Twa.