The phrase "claim God's blessing over your life", is meaningless. What is God's blessing? We have no right to demand anything from God. He may have some very difficult lessons for us that we need to go through to become more holy. To claim anything from God is the same as saying, "God you owe us."
A bratty child of the king would say that because he was a child of the king, everyone should give him what he wants, whether or not it is good for him or others. God is much more concerned with our spiritual growth than our physical happiness.
We enjoy the material and physical blessings God gives us and we praise Him for them, but if that is all we do, then we are missing the point of this life. We are called to grow in holiness, desiring "Spiritual blessings."
The greatest blessing God could give us is a spirit more dedicated to Him, and that comes through training, sometimes very harsh training. We are in boot camp on this earth, that's how we learn and become strong.
James 1:2-16
"1 Consider it all joy, my brothers, when you encounter various trials,
3 for you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance.
4 And let perseverance be perfect, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.
5 But if any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God who gives to all generously and ungrudgingly, and he will be given it.
6 But he should ask in faith, not doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed about by the wind.
7 For that person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord,
8 since he is a man of two minds, unstable in all his ways.
9 The brother in lowly circumstances should take pride in his high standing,
10 and the rich one in his lowliness, for he will pass away “like the flower of the field.”
11 For the sun comes up with its scorching heat and dries up the grass, its flower droops, and the beauty of its appearance vanishes. So will the rich person fade away in the midst of his pursuits.
12 Blessed is the man who perseveres in temptation, for when he has been proved he will receive the crown of life that he promised to those who love him.
13 No one experiencing temptation should say, “I am being tempted by God”; for God is not subject to temptation to evil, and he himself tempts no one.
14 Rather, each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. 15 Then desire conceives and brings forth sin, and when sin reaches maturity it gives birth to death.
16 Do not be deceived, my beloved brothers:
17 all good giving and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no alteration or shadow caused by change.
18 He willed to give us birth by the word of truth that we may be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures."
The greatest blessings from God are spiritual. Too often the "blab it and grab it" crowd replace the spiritual blessings of this passage with physical and material. Sometimes we have to suffer physical ill health to receive a spiritual blessing. The more we have to trust Christ because of hardship the greater becomes our faith.
The worldly Christianity thinks that blessing is always what we want, when we want it, this mentality is that of a spoiled child who demands things from God and becomes discouraged and depressed when God doesn't give the kind of blessing they wanted. The focus is often this material world rather than the spiritual.
Those who blame the devil for everything don't realize that the devil can do nothing without God's permission as with the account of Job in the First Testament. When we blame the devil it is the same as blaming God, because God has given him permission to do what he does and could stop him at any time, but he doesn't, so that we will see ourselves through our reactions and attitudes as we go through whatever God has for us.
Through our trials we learn to pay attention more to God for help. We learn things we could not learn if we didn't have the trial and we may be a blessing to others watching, who see our strength no matter what, and want to know where that strength comes from. We mature through trials, there is little growth when things are easy.
Then comes great joy when we went through with God. We stayed the course, kept the faith and in the end will reap the reward.
Galatians 6:9
"Let us not lose heart in doing good, for in due time we will reap if we do not grow weary."
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