Blessing
Image by Paige K Slighter
When I was growing up, at school we had a very helpful lesson in the art of letter writing. Back then it was pen and paper!
We were shown how to layout a letter and the differences between a formal and informal letter. An important thing was how the letter ended and when to use ‘yours sincerely’ or ‘yours faithfully’
If I’m honest, to this day I’m actually not sure what to use when, I’d have to check online! However, I have found my own way of ending letters, I write ‘God bless’. I use that 99.9% of the time!
I love the idea of God blessing the person I am communicating with. The subject of blessing came up in our Connect Group recently. This is our church midweek group that meets in our home where we share life, drink coffee, study the Bible and pray together.
We are working our way through the first book of the Bible, Genesis and we read about a man called Abram, who God singled out, and said to him…
“I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you;
I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing.
I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse;
and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.”
God said that He would bless Abram. I came across this definition from Jasmine Peterson: ‘God’s blessings are the good things He does for us, whether in our spiritual life, circumstances, provision of practical needs etc.’
I think being blessed by God is a wonderful thing! God did it for Abram and I believe he wants to bless us to! However, it does not end there…
God said to Abram that people would be ‘blessed through you’. In other words, God’s blessing was not to be restricted to Abram, but to overflow to others. Abram was blessed so that he could be a blessing to people!
There is another perspective on blessing, and that is us blessing God for all that He has done for us, in us and through us. It’s like a grateful child who, when they get a gift they have longed for on a birthday, go and embrace the giver of the gift!
I believe God longs to bless you, so that you can be a blessing to those you meet. Let me encourage you to seek to be a blessing this week…
God bless you :)
Gary Bastin - Hope Community Church leader