Bless the Lord

It doesn’t take long to look around and see all the ways which God has blessed us. We have our health. Family who loves us. Friends who encourage us. We have a roof over our heads and food on our tables. In fact, the other night I opened a couple of cabinets in the kitchen which were stuffed to overflowing and lamented I couldn’t find anything I wanted to eat. Same goes with my refrigerator which is packed to the gills. Yet, nothing I really wanted to snack on in there either. And to think there are millions of people all over the world that do not get to eat every day because they have nothing. We also live in a country where we can worship as our conscience dictates. We have no fear of police or government officials bursting in the doors of church to arrest those praying or worshiping Jesus. That’s not the case in a lot of the world. We are blessed to be able to freely speak our minds and elect our leaders. We have men and women who volunteer to serve in the military and when we call 9-1-1, we are certain someone will come to our aid. These are just a few of the blessings that came to me off the top of my head. We should never take them for granted. I’m certain you could continue your own list for quite a while as I could. Yes, God has blessed and continues to bless us every single day.   

One of the songs our worship team plays is “10,000 Reasons” by Matt Redman. In this song, the chorus includes “Bless the Lord, O my soul.” After hearing this song on K-Love the other day, it made me wonder. I know God blessed me but how could I bless Him? What does it mean to bless God? I mean, if God is perfect, how can we bless Him? The Hebrew word translated “bless” in the Old Testament is בָּרַךְ (“bârak”). This literally means to kneel, indicating the idea of honoring the Lord. So, to bless God simply means to praise Him or to honor His name. Our praise or worship is an appropriate response to God’s greatness and His love for us. 

Now, most people when they hear the terms “praise” or “worship” think about Sunday services, and that is true. When we lift up our voices in prayer and song to the LORD, we bless Him. However, it is more than music. In Romans 12, Paul tells us, “And so, dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to give your bodies to God because of all he has done for you. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice – the kind he will find acceptable. This is truly the way to worship him. Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect” (Romans 12:1-2). So, we worship or praise (“bless”) the Lord by living lives that are holy and obedient. Psalm 16:7 says, “I will bless the Lord who guides me; even at night my heart instructs me.” We do not let this fallen world influence us but instead try to influence the world through our words and actions. When we do that. When we are obedient to His will and word – we bless the Lord.

Do you remember how you felt as a young child when mom or dad took the macaroni picture you made at school and put it up on the door of the refrigerator for all to see? They were so proud of what we had created. It felt like a million bucks. Not just because it was up on the frig but because of your mom and dad’s reaction. They were delighted. The joy our art project seemed to bring them made us feel pretty amazing.

Well, in a similar way, every time we praise the Lord, obey His Word, He is blessed. Delighted. Full of joy. And He puts our picture up on His frig. How does it feel to know that God has put your picture up on His heavenly refrigerator? Pretty amazing. I pray that today we will bless the Lord!    

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Remember you can email praises and petitions to southchurchprayer@gmail.com. I lift them up every Wednesday at 4:00 pm on Facebook Live.