Receiving The Blessing and Favor of God

Here we are at the third of the grounding truths from God’s Word that have transformed my way of living over quite a few decades.

If you are a church attender at all then I’m pretty sure that at some point you will have heard these words of blessing from whoever is presiding over the service.

The Lord bless you and keep you;  the Lord make his face shine on you and be gracious to you;  the Lord turn his face toward you and give you peace.

Numbers 6:24-26

These words are a blessing that God told Moses to have the priests say over the people so God could pour out His blessings on them.

Who really knows the reasons why but for many years I felt pretty alone and misunderstood and disconnected from anyone who really cared about me.  We talk about the “ups and downs” of life but those years were more like “down and further down.”

On the outside I pasted on my smile and did the things I had to do but inside I was falling apart. 

After one particularly difficult time, with the encouragement of dear friends I began to do what I’m sharing with you these days – take sentences from the Bible and take God at His Word for me and my life. 

I began to tell myself these things and welcome God to work the reality of them in the dark places of my soul and in my circumstances.

One of the gentle ways that God helped me put that into practice was to get myself somewhere in the sunshine and just turn my face up to the sky and as I felt the warm rays of the sun I would receive the kindness and peace of God these verses speak about.

From mountainsides and rice paddies in Taiwan to sitting on a bench near the Inukshuk monument on Beach Street in Vancouver and so many other locations, I’ve received the gentle blessing of God smiling on me that a simple ray of sunshine helped me to remember. 

It wasn’t about a lot of words. I’d just tell God that it was a hard day and so I was going to sit in the sun and remind myself that God was smiling on me with His love and favour. 

I would tell God to do whatever was needed, particularly in the parts of my soul that I couldn’t understand, to put me back together and to give me His peace.

And then I would just sit there in God’s presence for a while.  No words.  No effort.  No trying to figure things out.  Just receiving whatever God knew I needed in that moment.

So, pause a moment, turn your face and your heart in God’s direction today and receive His blessing. 

The Lord bless you and keep you;  the Lord make his face shine on you and be gracious to you;  the Lord turn his face toward you and give you peace.

Numbers 6:24-26