A prayer of blessing

This is one of my favorite passages in the Bible, a prayer of blessing that the priests would say over the people of Israel.

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)

It is a prayer that I would love for someone to say over me.  And as God’s priest, it’s a prayer that we should be praying for others.

What are we asking for?

1.  We’re asking for God’s blessing on them. 

We pray that they would know every spiritual blessing that they have in Christ:  forgiveness of sins and adoption as children of the most high God. 

And we pray that God would bless them in their everyday lives: in their relationships, at work, in all that they do.

2.  We’re asking for God’s protection for them. 

We ask that God would protect them from the attacks of the enemy and all evil.

3.  We’re asking that the Lord would shine his face on them. 

We ask that he would reveal himself to them in every way so that they could know him better.

4.  We’re asking that he would pour out his grace on them. 

Each and every day, we need the grace of God in our lives.  And so we pray for that in the lives of the people around us.

5.  We’re asking that God would turn his face towards them. 

That he would not turn away from them because of their sin.  But that he would actively pursue them and work in their lives in order to bring them closer to Him. 

It has the picture of God looking at them with a smile of pleasure on his face because of what he sees.

6.  We’re asking that he would give them peace. 

We ask that God would give them the peace that surpasses all understanding and only comes through Christ.

And God says that as we pray that prayer over people, he will put his name upon them and bless them. 

In other words, he marks out these people as special to him, and he will work in their lives that he may bless them.

To everyone who reads this blog, that is my prayer for you:

That God may bless you, and keep you. 

That he would cause his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you. 

That he would turn his face towards you and give you peace. 

Amen.