In
my faith community/church we have a saying that came out of an extensive study
we made through the Bible exploring God’s call on His people:
“Blessed to Be a Blessing”
As
we journeyed through Scripture over many months we saw from beginning to end
that God has always had a plan for His people to be a blessing to others.
In
Genesis 12:2-3 it starts with God’s words to Abram (Abraham):
“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
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.”
Throughout
this journey this saying began to develop a theology in us. A theology, put in
simple terms, is the doctrine or belief that forms your faith about something.
So the theology that began to develop for us was that God has blessed us for a
greater purpose than just making us happy. He has blessed us so that we will in turn bless other
people. God’s heart is for people. He loves us and He loves to bless His
people. Blessing is His nature, and we are called to imitate and take on His
nature.
I appreciated the comments by Brene Brown that
Bernice shared with us in her introductory post on April 24. She spoke of how
simply having an attitude about something (in this case gratitude) does not
make it an active practice in our lives. I agree that simply having an attitude
will not make something an action, but attitude is a very important part.
Our
attitude is formed by our theology, our belief about what we believe to be
true, and our practice or actions flow out of what we believe ~ they flow out
of our attitude. So understanding and believing that God has called me to use
the blessings He has given me to bless others will guide how I approach how I
live and minister. So rather than praying “Lord, bless me”, my prayer becomes
“Lord, make me a blessing today. Bless someone through me today” Over time,
then, my attitude and my actions begin to change as I am open to and look for
ways to be a blessing to others. It also changes how we view our stuff, our
money, our time, our lives – all blessings from God, but like tithing, we are
simply managers or stewards of the blessing God has given us. Our time, our
money, our stuff, our very lives, all belong to God and He has called us to use
them in the way that pleases Him – use them to bless others.
Let’s make this real practical. What are
blessings in your life that you can bless others with? And who can you bless?
Some ideas:
Bless others with your:
- Money
- Time
- Gifts
- Talents
- Compassion
- Love
- Stuff
Bless:
- your family
- your neighbors
- people in your church
- people in your school or job
- people you know
- people you don’t know
- the poor
- the needy
- people in crisis
The really incredible thing is that when we
start to live life looking for ways to bless others, we find that we experience
God’s blessings in new ways as well.
Thank you so much Mary. I love your take on the prompts.
Great post :)
ReplyDeleteI love Mary's art! This is fabulous!
ReplyDeleteSo very well said and so beautifully illustrated. It made me look at my own life and think about how I can be a blessing to others. Sometimes, in the midst of doing for others who can't do for themselves, we get caught up in the task. It is helpful to remember that we are being a blessing, which in turn will hopefully make it less of a chore.
ReplyDeleteThis is a beautiful post. I am just starting to understand what being a blessing is to someone else. Such incredible encouragement.
ReplyDelete