The Power of Blessing—with a Prodigal, a Neighbor, an Enemy, the World—plus a gift

Photo by James Coleman on Unsplash

Once again our prodigal had aggravated me. My natural reaction was to raise my voice and assign a consequence. Instead, as he stormed out of the house, I went to his room, gathered his scattered dirty clothes and headed to the laundry room. 

Doing his laundry was his job, not mine. But today it was mine. And as I threw each shirt and shorts into the washer, I said, “My son, I bless you.” I don’t know if he felt blessed, but it did wonders for me.

Why did I do that? Because God has convinced me of the power of blessing, and the challenge to live it out. “Do not repay evil with evil or insult with insult. On the contrary, repay evil with blessing, because to this you were called so that you may inherit a blessing. (1 Peter 3:9) 

The Meaning of Blessing

What does it mean to bless? Blessing is the projection of good into another’s life, according to Dallas Willard. Or, to bring God into it, to bless is to offer prayer to God for someone’s welfare and benefit.  What a wonderful thing—to ask for good to happen in another’s life.

Given the realities of family stress with a pandemic, financial needs, racial tensions, fires and hurricanes, and new educational challenges, I imagine there is great need of blessing in word and deed in many homes. 

But the call to bless extends well beyond our families to neighbors, to co-workers, to those with different political views, to those with divergent cultural and racial attitudes and opinions. God says, bless, don’t curse. In speaking your thoughts, expressing your feelings, describing the reality of your experience, as God’s children we speak in love, not animosity, with blessing, not cursing.

And it goes one step further: Jesus Himself admonishes us,

“But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, (Matthew 5:44) Paul affirms this: “Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.” (Romans 12:21) 

Seriously? Bless my enemies? People who have harmed me or demeaned me or even destroyed my life and people I love?

The Power of Blessing

Hate multiplies hate, but blessing multiplies blessing—and comes back to us.

I am convinced that we need to extend blessing to our nation and the nations of the world. That is why I have loved the singing of The Blessing in nation after nation. This morning in my time with the Lord, I sang and prayed the blessing over Malaysia, where many believers have been persecuted and even abducted and Bibles have been destroyed. The day before I blessed Nigeria, where so many are being slaughtered.

Here’s a beautiful blessing for those of us in the U.S.: I have many friends in Africa, and I began to get messages from them that they were praying for and blessing America. How wonderful. I receive that blessing. We are needy. 

Then this week I read that many believers in that great continent were sensing a call from God to bless our country. I am so humbled by that, knowing we are imperfect and unworthy. And apparently this Blessing America movement has spread beyond Africa to other nations across the globe.

Our response? To be on our knees, repenting: “If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land.” (2 Chronicles 7:14) 

What if all of those (us) who are vilifying each other, lying and accusing of lying, filling social media with anger and accusations, were to instead speak words of blessing instead of cursing? What if media outlets would seek to bring together rather than stir up strife? What if we were to bless?

And my response: to bless those I live with and near and encounter: with hopeful words, with encouraging eyes (above my mask), with a listening ear, meeting real needs. And looking for ways to do these things beyond my immediate capacity. 

Most of all: I will choose to bless on my knees, praying for our loving God to do His good for them, to bless them far beyond anything I can do or say.

You can read more about blessing in my book When You Love a Prodigal in the Love chapter, page 37, and the Prayer chapter, page 142.

What about you? Whom can you bless today?

C 2020 Judy Douglass

I have a gift for you: A beautiful page of blessings for you to pray over a loved one or a challenging person in your life can be downloaded and printed.