Dear BPCWAians, Receiving blessings is the common desire of humans. Who likes to be cursed? The Bible often speaks of blessings. And many people turn to Christianity today because they are seeking blessings for their own lives and for their family. Do you want to be blessed by God? Do you feel God should bless you? Does God also give curses? How should you enjoy God’s blessings?

Do you want to be blessed by God? Why? I am sure the resounding answer is yes! It is likely that part of your prayers for yourself and your loved ones daily is like what is found in Psalm 67:1, “… God be merciful unto us, and bless us; and cause his face to shine upon us; Selah”. We want to blessed by God in our studies, in our jobs, in our family life, and in our church too. There is nothing wrong with that at all. But the follow up question that needs to be asked is – why do you seek and pray for blessings from God? The biblical reason why any child of God desires to be blessed is in verse 2 of this Psalm, “That thy way may be known upon earth, thy saving health among all nations.”  The Psalmist prays to God for mercy and blessings   in verse 1. Verse 2 tells us that the motive for wanting to be blessed by God is so that God’s way and His saving health may be made known to all nations on earth! Whenever you ask for God’s blessings, are they for these reasons? Generally, most of us seek to be blessed by God so that we will benefit personally. We hope to do well in school, in our jobs, and in any pursuits so that we will succeed and have an enjoyable and trouble free life. We hope to be blessed with possessions and health so that we will have no worries. We want to be blessed with intelligent children so that they will make us proud. These are self centered reasons for seeking blessings from God. The biblical reasons are not self-centred but God-centred. Notice that the Psalmist did not ask for blessings so that they could expend it on themselves.

Do you feel God should bless you? There are amazing lessons to learn from just these 2 verses. The first lesson is humility. The aim of the Psalmist is to uplift God with the blessings and favour he is asking from God. The Psalmist not only asks God to bless them for non self-centered reasons, but he acknowledges at the same time that even they are not worthy of receiving such blessings which they intend to use for Him! Do we think like that when we ask God for blessings? Notice that he also asks God to be merciful. The reason why he asks God to be merciful is because he acknowledges that they do not merit God’s blessings. What humility! This is very different from modern Christianity which paints God as owing us favour and blessings. We must remember that God’s blessings, even when we intend to use it for His kingdom, are given graciously out of His kindness. The second lesson  is about gratefulness that one can use God’s blessings for God’s purposes. Asking God to “cause his face to shine upon us” was to ask for God’s favour upon them. This also means that he counts it a favourable privilege if God would be merciful to them and bless them with blessings that allow them to uplift Him, not themselves, in this world! Do we even remotely think like that when we pray for God to answer our prayers and bless us? It is important to learn that blessings are unmerited favours from God, and when we receive them, we should desire to use the blessings for Him.

Can you accept the purpose of blessings? Many today may find it difficult to accept that the purpose of blessings is for God’s end purposes, not to achieve our own aims. It is even harder to accept that one should be grateful that God would grant us blessings when they are for forwarding His own purposes! Some may even get angry at such notions despite it being clear in Scripture as expounded above. Their erroneous idea of the Christian God is someone whose chief aim is to bless man with what they want and to make them happy. Their concept is if we made God’s purpose and glory the chief end of man, then it makes God look selfish. To such people, interpreting that God wants to bless us with things to fulfil our desires would make Him a loving God. After all, “God is love”. What about you? How do you perceive God’s aim for blessing you? Why is this the state of mind in post- modern Christianity? The reason is because in parts of Christianity, the faith has moved from the biblical God-centred Christianity to a man-centred so called Christianity. Well, as we have covered in Progressive Christianity, the philosophy of Humanism during the Renaissance focused on philosophies about man. Some  of their way  of thinking began  to affect the Christian  in the church too. Humanism focuses on the temporal and personal over merely seeing this world as a temporary state to the Christian afterlife. Humanism’s philosophy is that religion serves man needs. So if there is a god, then this god serves man’s needs. The Christian in the church began to interpret Scriptures as being about man’s happiness, rather than God’s glory. This trend of thought that infiltrated the Christian’s way of viewing things and grew stronger and became the “new truth”. If you find that you struggle with Psalm 67:1-2 that the purpose of blessings is to be used for His purposes, not for our selfish use, and that we should consider it a joyful privilege that He blessed us so that we are able to serve His purposes, then you need to recalibrate your Christian world view. It is time to understand the true reason and meaning of blessings from God.

Yours in our Lord’s service

Pastor