Deepening our Christianity

the Monday Newsletter of Paul Prins

Edition #30 · 11 March 2024

Blessings Reader,

Reflecting on Blessings

"May the Lord bless you and keep you, may His face shine upon you and be gracious to you. May His face turn toward you and bring you peace."
​Numbers 6:24-25

The Lord is generous to us. His grace, mercy, and love are lavished upon us in a way that breaks part of me as I try to comprehend it. It breaks me in such a beautiful way as I understand the places in my those gifts fill, mend, and heal.

When we talk about blessings, there can be a tendency to see them as ethereal. Each blessing existing within an abstract space beyond the reach of our grasp, touch, and sight. Often, the mention of the grace, mercy, and love of the Lord has this same effect on us. It becomes something that we can think of but cannot feel. These blessings rest in a space just across the veil from the living.

There are other kinds of blessings that we understand to be explicitly tangible. Throughout the Old Testament, there is a trifold notion of what it means to be blessed by God: family (many children - mostly sons - and grandchildren), wealth, and long life. These are repeated literary tools used to communicate that the favor of God rests on someone. The life and teaching of Jesus rejects that any of these three are a sign of God's favor for their righteousness or character.

We don’t earn the blessings or favor of God. It is given freely to us while we don’t deserve it, and even when we may not want them. Why, then, do we so often withhold blessings until others earn them? Why do we hold so tightly to what was so generously and lavishly poured upon us? In what ways do we believe that we have earned the blessings of God, and therefore others must earn the blessings from our lips and lives?

I hope that I can be more like the example of Jesus in blessing all those who were near Him. I hope that you might join me as you unleash the generosity, tenderness, and praise that only you can give.

Until Next Week

Unpublished Photo for this Edition

A Prayer for the Week to Come

May the Lord open our hearts and minds to the ways His blessings rain upon us all. Help us to become voices of gratitude who can more clearly see the beautiful grace, mercy, and love of God.

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