Prayer of Blessing

I don’t always like to pray for God’s blessing.  If I’m being honest, sometimes it feels a little weird, like I’m being selfish to ask God to bless me.  In the past, many of the prayers that I’ve prayed for blessing were really examples of my own pride, feeling like I had things in control and all I needed was that extra boost of God to put things over the top.  Often I feel like if I pray for God to bless I’m praying wrong.

That is why I love God’s Word.  Here, when we find prayers of blessing, we know that they are pure.  In Numbers 6:24-26, God gives Moses and Aaron a prayer of blessing to pray for the people of Israel.  I mean, Moses didn’t make this up.  It isn’t coming from any selfish pseudo-spiritual place.  It’s coming from God Himself.  He says to pray this:

“May the Lord bless you
and protect you.
 May the Lord smile on you
and be gracious to you.
May the Lord show you his favor
and give you his peace.”

I have been using this prayer to help guide my own prayer time this week.  I have taken specific people (family, friends, students, pastors, etc.) and inserted their names into this prayer in place of the word “you.”  It has been really cool praying a prayer asking God to show the people I care about His face and His favor.  And this prayer gave me an idea.

Many of you got to this blog from my Facebook.  I thought it might be cool to make a little internet prayer circle, praying this prayer of blessing for each other.  Just “like” this status today, and then come back to it at some point over the weekend.  Look at the other people who have also “liked” it and then turn in your bible to Numbers 6:24-26.  Pray through this passage once for each “like,” even if you don’t know that person, inserting their name in where it says “you.”  It won’t take much time, but it can be a great blessing as we pray God’s power into the lives of others.