The God of Blessing
QUOTES FOR REFLECTION
“We all are born into the world looking for someone looking for us, and…we remain in this mode of searching for the rest of our lives.”
~Curt Thompson, psychiatrist and author
“Instructions for living a life.
Pay attention.
Be astonished.
Tell about it.”
~Mary Oliver (1935-2019), Pulitzer Prize-winning poet
“What you pay attention to shapes what you care about. And what you care about shapes what you become.”
~Jonathan Haidt, social psychologist and professor at New York University
“You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our hearts are restless until they rest in You.”
~Augustine (354-430), North African theologian
“It would seem that Our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak.”
~C.S. Lewis (1898-1963) in “The Weight of Glory”
“There is no duty we so much underrated as the duty of being happy.”
~Robert Louis Stevenson (1850-1894), Scottish writer
“…if we doubt or do not believe that God is gracious to us and is pleased with us, or if we presumptuously expect to please Him only through and after our works, then it is all pure deception, outwardly honoring God, but inwardly setting up self as a false god…. [God] has promised His grace freely, and wills that we begin by trusting that grace, and in it perform all works, whatever they may be.”
~Martin Luther (1483-1546) in his “Treatise on Good Works”
“God wants so much to be trusted.”
~David Wilkerson (1931-2011), Christian leader and founder of Teen Challenge
SERMON PASSAGE
Psalm 67 (NASB95)
1 God be gracious to us and bless us,
And cause His face to shine upon us— Selah.
2 That Your way may be known on the earth,
Your salvation among all nations.
3 Let the peoples praise You, O God;
Let all the peoples praise You.
4 Let the nations be glad and sing for joy;
For You will judge the peoples with uprightness
And guide the nations on the earth. Selah.
5 Let the peoples praise You, O God;
Let all the peoples praise You.
6 The earth has yielded its produce;
God, our God, blesses us.
7 God blesses us,
That all the ends of the earth may fear Him.
Numbers 6 (NASB95)
22 Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, 23 “Speak to Aaron and to his sons, saying, ‘Thus you shall bless the sons of Israel. You shall say to them:
24 The Lord bless you, and keep you;
25 The Lord make His face shine on you,
And be gracious to you;
26 The Lord lift up His countenance on you,
And give you peace.’
27 So they shall invoke My name on the sons of Israel, and I then will bless them.”