Make me a blessing

Prayer power

by Mervyn Morelock, Lt. Colonel –

This chorus is nestled in the 50 or so choruses in the prayer section of The Salvation Army Song Book. In reviewing the section, it becomes clear that most of the verses seek God’s blessings, a lifting of burdens, and requests that God would bless us, so that we might be a blessing to others. Most of the choruses are an appeal for God to help us live so that our lives would be like Jesus.

Several authors have written recently on the prayer of Jabez, found in 1 Chronicles 4:9-10, “Oh that you would bless me indeed, and enlarge my territory, that your hand would be with me, and that you would keep me from evil, that I may not cause pain!”

Darlene Wilkinson, in her little book The Prayer of Jabez for Women, writes: “The word bless in the biblical sense means to impart supernatural favor. When I ask God to bless me, I am crying out for His goodness and favor to be poured out on me. I am also acknowledging that He is the only One who is ‘able to do exceedingly, abundantly above all that we ask or think’” (Ephesians 3:20).

Most of us pray. We pray for our family, personal needs, the people mentioned in the weekly Call to Prayer list.

But what about prayer for yourself? Do you ever pray that God will bless and give you an opportunity to be a blessing to someone else?

A recent story on PBS radio related how a very small encounter can make a tremendous difference. A retired clinical psychologist told a college student that he had counseled for some time who suffered with deep depression. At the end of the last session, the student told the therapist that it was no sue; he was never going to amount to anything; his life was done. And he left.

The therapist eventually retired, and many years later he received a letter from the young man, now grown. The writer said that day when he left the therapist, deep in his despair, it seemed there was nothing left to live for. He walked out of the office deciding to take his own life. He walked along a riverbank to choose the place where he would take his life. As he walked, a young woman came toward him. As they passed, she smiled and said, “Hi! Isn’t it a beautiful day?” Then she went on.

The young man was startled by the encounter and thought, “If she, who didn’t even know me, saw in me a person worthy of a cheery hello, I must have some worth after all.” He wrote that he went back to school, completed his medical studies, and had been a doctor for several years, bringing hope and healing to others.

God used this young woman in a very important way. With just a smile and a cheery hello, she changed the destiny of the young man and an untold number of patients who were healed by this doctor’s care.

So the question is: Have you been asking the Lord to bless you and make you a blessing to someone? It may be by doing an unexpected act of kindness; it may be an encouraging word; it may be a smile. You may change many lives by sharing your blessings!

We can come boldly to ask God for his blessing and favor upon us. That’s because we asking according to his greatness and not according to our worthiness. The kind of blessing we need to ask for is given, not on the basis of our performance, but on God’s goodness alone.

Darlene Wilkinson further writes: “You don’t have to change your name. You don’t have to change your past. All you have to do is pray.”

O God, please bless me, and bless me a lot!