Tag: God’s smiling face
Jesus’ Shining Face!
Scripture reading for September 8: Psalm 67:1-3, 6-7 “May God be gracious to us and bless us and make His face to shine upon us, that Your way may be known on earth, Your saving power among all nations. Let the peoples praise You, O God; let all the peoples praise You!” . . . “The earth has yielded its increase; God, our God, shall bless us. God shall bless us; let all the ends of the earth fear Him.”
John 20:21-22 “Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent Me, even so I am sending you.” And when He had said this, He breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit.“
Today’s psalm comes from a worshiper in Israel and was sent to the choirmaster as a song. It was a prayer for God’s grace and favor to be made known among His people. The Aaronic blessing was part of this song, and asked God to turn His shining and glorious face towards His people. This wasn’t just for a supernatural experience, but to fulfill God’s stated purpose of showing His saving and healing power to all the nations of the earth. As Israel sang praises to their Lord, Who was smiling on them and pleased with them, they would enjoy the blessings of His grace in salvation and forgiveness of sins, deliverance from their enemies, and healing of their sicknesses and diseases. All the ends of the earth would be drawn to the God Who smiles and blesses His people. The earth would yield its increase and God would pour out more blessings on all who praised Him. As praises go up, blessings come down.
God answered the prayer of this worshiper in the sending of His Son to reveal the smiling and gracious face of the Father Who wanted to pour out blessing on His people. God the Father sent His Son to heal the sick, deliver the bound, and seek and save the lost. He recruited disciples who would take His blessing to the ends of the earth. To equip them, He looked each one in the face and breathed on them, giving them the Father’s blessing–the Holy Spirit. They were sent in His peace to do as Jesus did!
Prayer: Father God, thank You for turning Your smiling face upon us and giving us grace and blessings. May we who have believed obey Your simple instructions to take this Good News to all the earth! Amen.
Enjoying God’s Smiling face!
Scripture Reading for February 13th: Numbers 5-8
Everyone loves a blessing! Blessing assures us of something good coming our way that costs us nothing and that sometimes is the opposite of what we really deserve. God’s grace is a blessing to us who really deserve His wrath and punishment. Today’s reading contains the Aaronic blessing found in Numbers 6:22-27.
The Lord said to Moses, “Tell Aaron and his sons, ‘This is how you are to bless the Israelites. Say to them: ” ‘ “The Lord bless you and keep you; The Lord make His face shine upon you and be gracious to you; the Lord turn His face towards you and give you peace.” ‘ “So they will put my name on the Israelites and I will bless them.”
I love to say this blessing! I usually give it at the end of every service I lead. This is God telling His priests how to speak a blessing over God’s people. God really wants to bless His children! God wants them to experience his provision and protection. Blessing speaks of provision and abundance without any sorrow or trouble. “The blessing of the Lord brings wealth and he adds no trouble to it.” (Proverbs 10:22) Keeping us implies safety and protection.
God uses the picture of His face shining on us. Think of someone with a smile that radiates love and warmth. (My mother has that kind of smile!) God is telling us that His face is smiling at us and His grace is being poured out on us. When He is looking at us and smiling, we have peace that passes understanding. God is not angry with His people when they come to Him for forgiveness, fellowship and favors.
We need God and are so blessed to know that He loves us. This love doesn’t come from our perfect behavior, but in spite of our sin and rebellion! Jesus Christ has pleased the Father by His perfect obedience. When we trust in Christ and believe on Him, the smile of God’s face can be turned toward us! God has been so gracious to us by sending His Son to restore the smile of God in our lives! May the Lord bless and keep you today, may His face smile lovingly on you and your family! May His peace fill your lives! May His name be upon you!
The Blessing of God
Scripture reading for February 12th: Numbers 5-8
Everybody wants to be blessed! The Amplified Bible’s expanded meaning of “to be blessed” is ” happy, to be envied, ” . Blessed people have good things coming their way. They enjoy an abundance and their lives are filled with joy and peace. This peace is beyond circumstances and permeates the soul and heart. In our reading for today, we find the Aaronic blessing that God instructed Aaron to speak over His people so that God could put His Name on them and bless them.
“The Lord bless you and keep you; The Lord make His face shine upon you and be gracious to you; The Lord turn His face toward you and give you peace.” “So they will put My name on the Israelites, and I will bless them.” (Numbers 6:24-27)
One of the blessings mentioned here is being kept safe by the Lord. God is a refuge for His people and an ever-present help in time of trouble. (Psalm 46:1) The Lord is all-powerful and has the ability to stop any attack on His people. He promises protection to all who are set apart for Him.
A sign of God’s blessing is His smiling face! Isn’t it great to know that God can smile and is happy with you! One way that we can make God smile is to walk in faith. Faith is a prerequisite for pleasing God. (Hebrews 11:6) When our Father is happy with us His children, we know His grace will flow to us. Grace is His unmerited favor sending more than we deserve our way.
It is interesting that this blessing comes right after the description of the Nazirite vow that could be taken by one who voluntarily wanted to consecrate himself to the Lord for a set period of time. This Nazirite vow speaks of Jesus Christ, who as known as a Nazarene, for his original home town of Nazareth. Jesus voluntarily set Himself apart to fully obey God, His Father. Jesus offered Himself fully as a sin offering for all of us. Because of His faithfulness, and by faith in Him we can enjoy better than the Aaronic blessing! We have open access to God’s throne by Jesus’ blood. We can come before Him and know His smile of pleasure and His joy is in us. His gracious gift of eternal life is ours forever! We will see His face one day!