A Wish Prayer for Us

In Ephesians 1:17-19 Paul offers a "wish prayer" for the church in Ephesus. A wish prayer is nothing mysterious. It is simply a prayer wishing and hoping that God would bestow some blessing on another person. In this case Paul prays for three things:

1. That they would have a "spirit of wisdom and revelation" in order to know God better.
2. That the "eyes of their heart may be enlightened" to know the hope of their eternal life.
3. That they would experience "his incomparably great power for us who believe."

As a devotional tool, I wrote a wish prayer for you . . . and for me. Pray through it and expand on it. Feel free to offer an amendment to make it better. I hope it will be helpful to you, drawing you closer to a personal connection with God that He desires for all of us to have.

God, I want to know You personally . . . for real. I don’t want to know about You. I want to know You.

I need your help:

Help me to see Your truth and apply it to my life . . . even when it’s hard.

Help me to trust in You and Your purpose for my life . . . even when life is dark and uncertain.

Help me to walk in Your power every day . . . even when I am afraid.

I need a fresh dose of Your grace and mercy to make this possible and the full assurance of Your love for me.

Please reveal Yourself to me and make me to walk in trusting faith. Amen.

I look forward to your feedback . . .

What is a blessing?

The word blessing is thrown out a lot. The dictionary has several definitions for the word, but the most general is: special favor, mercy, or benefit.

The term bless is used 388 times in some form in the Bible (NIV translation).

In the Old Testament (mentioned 302 times), blessing primarily works this way . . . God blesses in creation. Abraham will be blessed by God with children and prosperity in order to be a blessing to the world. God blesses the people of Israel with abundant provisions for their life - land, food, livestock, security, etc. However, over and over again, their blessing was to be used to bless others, especially people outside of their nation - the Gentiles. Those who follow God - the righteous - are blessed to know their ways are secure and that God is with them.

Then in the New Testament (mentioned 86 times) the focus seems to change somewhat. Jesus characterizes blessing in terms of attitudes and practices that are in line with the things He says and does. Blessing is on those who trust God's Word and obey. The blessing one receives isn't so much material and tangible, but spiritual and heavenly. Even Paul takes up the blessing Gentiles receive through Abraham and attributes that spiritually, saying they received Christ because they had faith like Abraham. His inheritance to them was faith. Revelation closes out the blessing theme by talking about the eternal blessing received by those who have followed Christ.

Today, blessing is mentioned quite often. Sometimes it is used to advocate how God wants us to receive material blessings and earthly riches akin to the Old Testament. It is also mentioned that blessing comes when God answers one's prayer or when a situation works out to one's benefit. Still others argue that blessing should be used to talk about our eternal reward for following Christ or a spiritual attribute we receive from God.

Can all these understandings of blessing be right at the same time? Can some of them be stretched outside of what the Bible was trying to say in order to fit some selfish desire we have? Are some people blessed while others are not? Are some Christians - people faithfully following God - blessed while others are not? Or have we misunderstood blessing altogether?

How do you see it?