Cindy Powell

Your towns and your fields
will be blessed.
Your children and your crops
will be blessed.
The offspring of your herds and flocks
will be blessed.
Your fruit baskets and breadboards
will be blessed.
Wherever you go and whatever you do,
you will be blessed.

“The Lord will conquer your enemies when they attack you. They will attack you from one direction, but they will scatter from you in seven!

“The Lord will guarantee a blessing on everything you do and will fill your storehouses with grain. The Lord your God will bless you in the land he is giving you.

“If you obey the commands of the Lord your God and walk in his ways, the Lord will establish you as his holy people as he swore he would do. Then all the nations of the world will see that you are a people claimed by the Lord, and they will stand in awe of you.”

You are a “people” claimed by the Lord.
You are His own special inheritance.
He guarantees His blessing over your life…

If we obey His commands:

“‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”

Love, the greatest commandment.
Love, the pathway to blessing.
Love, the way to be a blessing.
He blesses us because He loves us.
Because He loves us, we love Him.
Because we love Him, we love what He loves.
He loves people.
So we love people.
When we love people, we bless them.
When we love Him, love people, and bless them…
We obey His commands…
And He blesses us.
Again and again and again.

“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.”

Lately, I have been contemplating the fact that God wants to bless us. I mean He really wants to bless us. Far more than I think most of us can comprehend. Far more than most of us are even comfortable considering. When you love someone, you want them to do well. You want what’s best for them. You want them to prosper in life. That’s what God wants for us. That’s what He wants for our cities. That’s what He wants for our nation. That’s what He wants for the nations of the earth. And yes, He does bless us to be a blessing–because when we bless others we just get more blessed ourselves. When He blesses us, it can’t help but spill over.

So if His blessing has such far-reaching impact, maybe, just maybe, we should pursue His blessing?  Maybe we should keep the first commandment in first place and focus on love? Maybe we should believe He wants to bless us? In fact, maybe we should believe He wants to do more than we can hope or think or imagine?

Maybe we should ask and not to let go until  He blesses us?

We just might find He’s more willing than we think. I don’t know about you, but I’m taking Him up on it!

May the Lord bless you
    and protect you.
May the Lord smile on you
    and be gracious to you.
 May the Lord show you his favor
    and give you his peace.

And may you be so completely amazingly and astonishingly blessed in everything you put your heart and hand to that you can’t help but spill over onto those around you!

(Scripture references: Deuteronomy 29:1-5 NLT, Matthew 22:37-40 NIV, Genesis 12:2 NIV, Numbers 6:24-26 NLT)