Bless You

The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make his face shine on you and be gracious to you; the Lord turn his face toward you and give you peace.”’. Numbers 6:24-26

These are familiar words we’ve heard as a benediction to worship services. This closing prayer is designed to send us on our way with the blessing of God. It invites or asks God for divine blessing, help, guidance, and peace. Words we can use every day to face the challenges of another day.

 Life comes with so many stresses and from many directions impacting our physical and mental well-being. For many of these stresses we can identify a root cause, but sometimes it can be difficult to identify what all of our stressors even are. It’s just too hard.

For the past two years we’ve been experiencing unprecedented times leaving us feeling so challenged, perhaps overwhelmed with a variety of life adjustments. In many cases, this has led to higher levels of anxiety, depression, or loneliness.

Let us turn to these words from Numbers as they serve to remind us that God is not blinded to our situations, and He intends to not only protect our lives but also to allow us to see the good side of it. Scripture reminds us that God works all things for good through blessings of love, kindness, joy, laughter, and peace. His blessings fill our lives in places for which we have not even asked.

God is just and at the same time merciful, but also full of abundant grace. Justice is getting what we deserve, and mercy is not getting what we deserve. But grace is getting better than what we deserve. We all need grace. Grace upon grace. Let’s be encouraged that God’s blessings come to us continuously, even in times of testing. It is when we recognize and appreciate them that we experience God’s hand in turning things around.

Holy God only You are worthy of all praise and honor. We thank You for your boundless love and all the blessings over our lives. Please forgive us Lord, when we fail to remember You love us and when we sometimes fail to remember that You know all our ways and everything that concerns us. We pray that the works of our hands today will bring honor and glory to Your name. Grant us the wisdom each day to hear Your voice. Make us instruments of Your peace in our families and our community – in Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.

The Blessing Song  This may help to memorize this Priestly blessing