Editor’s note: “The Spoken Word” is shared by Derrick Porter every Sunday during the weekly Tabernacle Choir broadcast from Temple Square. This is the 5,052nd episode broadcast on Sunday, July 12, 2026.
Note: Reservations are required to attend Music and the Spoken Word at the Salt Lake Tabernacle. Click here for more information on how to make a reservation.
Social platforms have introduced many new phenomena. One is to place hashtags before word tags to make them searchable.
The phrase #blessed is estimated to have been used in over 100 million posts on Instagram alone. (See “#Blessed May Not Mean What You Think,” TGC, Christine Gordon, March 24, 2019, thegospelcoalition.org.) This tag is often used to highlight something received or experienced, such as a gift, vacation, or special moment.
But a blessing from heaven is more than just a moment of good fortune. They are often tender, specific, timely, and gracious gifts that God lovingly bestows upon His children. In many ways, God’s blessings are an extension of God’s hand in our lives, guiding, supporting, and equipping us according to His will.
Even if we feel that we are not receiving the blessings we need, that does not mean God is absent. Some blessings take time to be recognized and unfold.
God’s blessings come in many forms.
Some things are given to us simply because we are children of God. God wants to bless us all. As recorded in the New Testament, “God causes his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and the unjust” (Matthew 5:45).
Other blessings are conditional on obedience to God’s commandments (see D&C 130:20-21). The book of Malachi teaches: “Bring all the tithes into the storehouse…and prove me here and now…if I do not open to you the windows of heaven and pour out blessings upon you” (Malachi 3:10). Before we can receive these blessings, we must act in faith.
Still others are on hold, waiting for us to sincerely ask. While teaching his disciples, Jesus declared, “Until now you have asked nothing in my name. Ask, and your joy will be full” (John 16:24, New Revised Standard Version).
God longs to bless us. Just as God promised to covenant Israel that he would “rejoice over them and do good to them” “with all his heart and with all his soul” (Jeremiah 32:41), God wants to bless us in the same way today.
When we look for the blessings that the Lord has already given us, when we strive to act in accordance with His commandments, when we trust fully in His timing and ask for the blessings we need in faith, we can rest in the knowledge that we are in the Lord’s hands and in His sight.
Tuning…
“Music & the Spoken Word” broadcasts are available on KSL-TV, KSL News Radio 1160AM/102.7FM, KSL.com, BYUtv, BYUradio, Dish and DirecTV, SiriusXM (Ch. 143), tabernaclechoir.org, youtube.com/TheTabernacleChoir, and Amazon Alexa (skills must be enabled). The program will be broadcast live on Sunday at 9:30 a.m. Mountain Time on these stations. Find airing information by state and city at musicandthespokenword.com/viewers-listeners/airing-schedule.
