It's probably the most common, generic prayer we hear: "Lord, please bless so-and-so..." It can mean any number of things, usually a vague plea to keep that person safe, give them happiness and make all their dreams come true (or something like that). But this morning I was reading in Acts and got a whole new perspective on that little word "bless."
"When God raised up his servant, Jesus, he sent him first to you...to bless you by turning each of you back from your sinful ways" (Acts 3:26, NLT).
Now that's a different kind of bless. When I pray, or hear others pray, "Lord, bless so-and-so," I have never once been thinking, "Turn so-and-so back from his sinful ways" ! But perhaps that's a more profound blessing than the safety-happiness-and-success "blessing" we have in mind. It may be a disguised blessing; a course correction is often frustrating, perhaps discouraging, even painful--especially if it's a forced one.
But oh, what blessings will come when our sin is behind us and we are free--when we reject the offers of false saviors and pursue the risen Lord. How blessed we will be if we see our sin for what it is and turn back from it.
Lord, bless me today!
Tuesday, January 22, 2008
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1 comment:
Came across your link on Persecution Blog,
That is a very profound and timely message to all our brother and sisters. Next time I ask the Lord to bless someone I will really think about what I am asking. I reminds me of a statement Jesus made to the Pharisees, “Which is easier: to say, Your sins are forgiven, or to say, Get up and walk?” Most of us ask for physical or financial healing when we should ask for that spiritual healing that comes only from his forgiveness. It is so much better to receive those things that can be taken with us into eternity than those things that will be left behind to rot and rust.
A brother in Christ,
Tony
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