Joyful Blessing

Joyful Blessing

Read: Luke 15:11-31

“The younger [son] said to his father, ‘Father, give me my share of the estate.’”

Luke 15:12

“The purpose of all prayer is to find God’s will and make that will our prayer.”

—Catherine Marshall

IN WORD There is more than one way to ask for a blessing from God. When many people think of asking God to bless them, they assume it implies the kind of insolence with which the Prodigal Son approached his father. Though the father is even gracious enough to honor this insult with blessing, the offensiveness of the request is easy to see.

But what father would deny a son who sincerely comes to him for blessing? Not only would he bestow abundance and fullness on his son, he would do so with great excitement and joy. He would be filled with compassion. “If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children,” Jesus says, “how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask Him!” (Matthew 7:11). Blessing children is natural even for those of us who are tainted with impurity. How much greater the blessing from the One who is pure love!

IN DEED When we ask God for His blessing, do we ask with the arrogance of the Prodigal Son? Or do we get on our knees before the Father and humbly ask that His highest will for us be made real? Do we ask without regard to the Father’s character, will, or feelings? Or do we know Him personally enough to ask with the respect He deserves?

God is a blesser by nature. How rarely we take this into account when we approach Him! We assume reluctance on His part, as though He would begrudge us anything. Not so, says Psalm 84:11—“No good thing does he withhold from those whose walk is blameless.” Even when we take His goodness for granted, He often blesses. How much more joyfully He blesses when the request is honoring to Him.