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the  Preachers  blog

Blogs are posted every Wednesday

God's Blessings (By Les Kovacs)

5/12/2020

 
We talk about blessings all the time as believers,  We sometimes talk about giving a blessing, or we pray for a blessing, or we read in the Bible about a blessing, but have you ever wondered it really means?  Blessing is God granting the power to do what he wants and intends for us to do.  When we bless others in the name of God, we are in effect praying that God would send His blessing to them.  When we bless we are asking God to bless someone to be successful in God’s good will and intentions for them. 

There are numerous accounts of blessings in the Bible, and one of the most well-known stories concerns the two sons of Isaac, Jacob and Esau. Their story in Genesis has a companion story in the New Testament.  It’s the parable of the Prodigal Son, in Luke 15, but that title is a little misleading because it’s really a story about two sons, one a Jacob-like schemer, the other an Esau-like plodder.  Even more, it’s a story about the real Prodigal: the father.  The word “prodigal”, means one who spends extravagantly, without thought about the cost.  The one who does that in Jesus’ parable is not the younger son who simply spends his fortune foolishly, it’s the father.  He is the one who gives one blessing after another.  He spends on his sons without measure.

Think about Esau’s woebegone reaction to the news that Jacob had stolen their father’s one and only blessing: “’Do you have only one blessing, my father?  Bless me too, my father!’ Then Esau wept aloud” (Genesis 27:38).  Jesus’ parable ends similarly, but then offers a grace-filled twist.  The younger son, like Esau, wants to lament his loss of the blessing.  But the father has an unexpected surprise for him. 

Meanwhile, the older son was in the field.  When he came near the house, he heard music and dancing. So he called one of the servants and asked him what was going on. ‘Your brother has come,’ he replied, ‘and your father has killed the fattened calf because he has him back safe and sound.”  The older brother became angry and refused to go in.  So his father went out and pleaded with him.  But he answered his father, ‘Look! All these years I’ve been slaving for you and never disobeyed your orders.  Yet you never gave me even a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends. But when this son of yours who has squandered your property with prostitutes comes home, you kill the fattened calf for him!”  “My son,” the father said, “you are always with me, and everything I have is yours.” Luke 15:25-31

Everything I have is yours.  Jesus is telling us in this parable what John states as a basic principle of the Kingdom of God: In Christ, we have all received one gracious blessing after another.  Through Christ, God’s blessings to us have no limits.
​
Receive His blessings.  Extend His blessings.  Teach your children to receive and extend these blessings as well.  We should all acknowledge and bless God, the source of all blessing, and then remember to obey his command, as his power enables us, to pass on His blessing to others.

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St Aidan’s Anglican Church
274 Campbell Street | Winnipeg, MB R3N 1B5
Phone: 204.489.3390 Email: staidans.churchoffice@gmail.com
  • Home
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  • Video Archive
    • 2023 Videos
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  • Sermon Audio Archive
    • 2020 Sermons
    • 2019 Sermons
    • 2019 Sermon Series >
      • Gospel Centered Eternities November 2019
      • The Real Joy of Easter - Holy Week 2019
    • 2018 Sermons
    • 2018 Sermon Series >
      • Gospel Centred Church Spring 2018
      • A Gospel Shaped Church Fall 2018
    • 2017 Sermon Series >
      • The Servant King Christmas 2016
      • The Saviour King Lent 2017
      • The Victorious King Holy Week 2017
      • The Living King Easter 2017
      • The Brother King Fall 2017
      • Worship the King Advent 2017
    • 2016 Sermon Series >
      • Real Obedience Lent 2016
      • Unity of the Church
      • The Servant King Christmas 2016
    • 2015 Sermon Series >
      • Real Gifts 2015
      • Real Mission 2015
      • Mission Discerned
    • 2014 Sermon Series >
      • Real Church 2014
      • Real Lives 2014
    • 2013 Sermon Series >
      • Real God 2013
    • Sermon Archive From 2014 - 2017
  • Christianity 101
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