Today I am finally ready. I’ve finished packing, set up my blog, charged my camera, and have even checked into my flight online. Most importantly, I’ve received my blessings.
That last statement probably sounds like a religious cliché. I think we have thrown around variations of the word blessing so much that we as a nation have come to associate it with a tolerable level of spiritual plainness. I’m not okay with that. I think about how variations of the word curse are also thrown around so jovially, yet we respect and fear that word and it always holds a powerful, negative connotation. Isn’t the blessing the extreme opposite of the curse? Not just a passive, feel-good opposite – but a strong, opposing force of the curse?
God doesn’t take the blessing lightly. Galatians 3:13-14 reads, “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written: 'Cursed is everyone who is hung on a pole.' He redeemed us in order that the blessing given to Abraham might come to the Gentiles through Christ Jesus, so that by faith we might receive the promise of the Spirit.”
Getting the blessing to us was a powerful enough reason for Jesus to die on the cross and be raised again.
The blessing involves much more than I could describe in one single blog post, not to mention it involves much more than I understand to begin with. But for me, in this season, the blessing includes the favor of God that surrounds me like a shield (Psalm 5:12), it includes the goodness and mercy of God that follows me (Psalm 23:6), and it includes divine appointments (Acts 8:26-40), it includes divine protection (Psalm 91:1-16). It also includes all the aspects of the blessing that I don’t know how to pray out, which is why I pray “always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit” (Ephesians 6:18, Romans 8:26).
This morning my Pastor prayed a blessing over me. I take that as the greatest gift a person could give. I go forward to Israel fully equipped with THE BLESSING.
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