God bless you!
God bless you ! If you want to hear those words just give two quarters to the next person standing on the side walk, asking for money. That homeless penniless person has just prayed for you the most comprehensive prayer known to humanity. The Almighty has been asked to do you a favor, and it is very likely he will. This does not mean that you can buy the favor of Almighty; it only means that God answers prayers – especially unselfish ones.
With me in the elevator one day, was a woman and small child. We were in a hospital riding up to the children’s ward on the fourth floor. The child was wearing pajamas and was obviously a patient who had been allowed the only great adventure that patients can have – a trip to the gift shop. I was wearing a clerical collar. Suddenly the little girl was pushed towards me and the woman demanded in an urgent way, “Bless her, Sister, bless her now before she goes back into that room.” I didn’t stop to explain the mistaken identity but did what any sister friend of mine would have done; I put my hand on the child’s head, asked God to bless her with good health and salvation. The woman thanked me so heartily that her faith in God was evident and I’m quite sure he heard and answered that hasty prayer in an elevator.
What did it mean to Abram when God said he would bless him and make him a blessing? What does it mean to you and I that God is eager to bless us and make us a blessing? Well, because we are old it means much more to us than it would have done when we were confident young people. Now that we are older our friends and relatives are fewer and we meet only a few new people. We fear being a burden and rarely think of ourselves as a blessing. But God wants to bless all people, and he wants everyone to be a blessing to somebody else.
God blessed Abram in unexpected ways, even in the disappointment and trials of life God granted him favors. When he downright failed to talk things over with God and tried to sell his wife to save his life, God was around and his blessing took the shape of stopping what Abram tried to do.
Blessing means much more than ‘Long life, health and wealth’ because that narrows down the many ways in which God plans to show us favor. That is what blessing is – it is God giving us favors. Not because we deserve them but because this is what he intends to do.
Since showing favors is the very nature of God who can stop him. We can of course, by getting in his way, by distrusting him, by insulting him. When we have a right attitude towards him, as Abram did, when we are so trustful of him that we seek to bring our conduct into line with his instructions, then we have made our selves available to all the favors God grants. They are many. God had no age limit for blessing In Abram’s time and he does not in your time.
With me in the elevator one day, was a woman and small child. We were in a hospital riding up to the children’s ward on the fourth floor. The child was wearing pajamas and was obviously a patient who had been allowed the only great adventure that patients can have – a trip to the gift shop. I was wearing a clerical collar. Suddenly the little girl was pushed towards me and the woman demanded in an urgent way, “Bless her, Sister, bless her now before she goes back into that room.” I didn’t stop to explain the mistaken identity but did what any sister friend of mine would have done; I put my hand on the child’s head, asked God to bless her with good health and salvation. The woman thanked me so heartily that her faith in God was evident and I’m quite sure he heard and answered that hasty prayer in an elevator.
What did it mean to Abram when God said he would bless him and make him a blessing? What does it mean to you and I that God is eager to bless us and make us a blessing? Well, because we are old it means much more to us than it would have done when we were confident young people. Now that we are older our friends and relatives are fewer and we meet only a few new people. We fear being a burden and rarely think of ourselves as a blessing. But God wants to bless all people, and he wants everyone to be a blessing to somebody else.
God blessed Abram in unexpected ways, even in the disappointment and trials of life God granted him favors. When he downright failed to talk things over with God and tried to sell his wife to save his life, God was around and his blessing took the shape of stopping what Abram tried to do.
Blessing means much more than ‘Long life, health and wealth’ because that narrows down the many ways in which God plans to show us favor. That is what blessing is – it is God giving us favors. Not because we deserve them but because this is what he intends to do.
Since showing favors is the very nature of God who can stop him. We can of course, by getting in his way, by distrusting him, by insulting him. When we have a right attitude towards him, as Abram did, when we are so trustful of him that we seek to bring our conduct into line with his instructions, then we have made our selves available to all the favors God grants. They are many. God had no age limit for blessing In Abram’s time and he does not in your time.
posted by Jessie Coates at 4:39 PM
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