Website design By BotEap.comIn our modern culture, we have lost sight of the power we have to hurt others. The story of Jacob and Esau explains something of the power of the blessing. If we read the story of Balaam in Numbers 22, we see the importance of blessings. God intervened so that his prophet would only speak blessings to Israel.

Website design By BotEap.com“God bless you,” we say on a hot day when a friend hands us a glass of cold water. When we ask God to rain his goodness on our friend, do we really believe in the power of that blessing?

Website design By BotEap.comAnd what is a blessing but a prayer to the Lord to give good things to the one who blesses? Therefore, do not give blessings lightly. We will be judged by every word we speak. But give blessings on purpose.

Website design By BotEap.comKnowing the power of blessing when we bless others, whose blessings do we seek when we seek the good graces of the Lord? We have problems, we have diseases, we have needs. We know that we need the good favor of the Lord. Where we go?

Website design By BotEap.comToo often we go for the “professional”. The reverend, the priest, or some other paid saint. But is his blessing better than the one you receive from your wife? Are the professionals so much closer to the Father that we will seek them out and call them when Satan strikes us?

Website design By BotEap.comI learned to look for other sources of blessings instead. Against my will, I received an assignment from Mark, one of our search and rescue medics. He was coming back to the States to take a job as a lab technician so he could be with his lovely pregnant wife for a couple of years before going back into the private military contractor business.

Website design By BotEap.comMark took me to a corner in Bogotá and introduced me to an old beggar. The old man was about five feet tall with his right leg missing just below the hip. He once was a soldier who lost a leg at the start of Colombia’s civil war in the 1950s.

Website design By BotEap.comMark called him “Abuelito” (little grandfather) and told me that it was now my responsibility to visit Abuelito when he rotated in the country and before he rotated out. For the next two years, the money I gave to my Grandfather was never that much, but every time I saw him, he blessed me.

Website design By BotEap.comOne afternoon I came to the corner and Grandpa wasn’t there. I asked the woman who was always there selling gum and candy at a sidewalk stand if she had seen the old man.

Website design By BotEap.com“He got sick and died,” he said. “But he always talked about you, and how you were the angel that God sent him in answer to his prayers.”

Website design By BotEap.comA few months later, another man recruited me, this time in Texas. He was moving and wanted to hire someone to take over his job of visiting widows at a small nursing home on Sunday afternoons. I made excuses. I resisted. But he insisted. So I went.

Website design By BotEap.comThese widows, one 104 years old, bless me every Sunday afternoon when I am home on a break. Some can barely get their “God bless you” out, and I have to lower my ear two inches from their mouths. But I am the one who receives the blessing.

Website design By BotEap.comI received the blessing of two men pushing me towards those whom God loves. And I received even greater blessings from the beggar and the widows.

Website design By BotEap.comThe next time you need God’s blessings, go to the people God listens to. We know from the Scriptures that widows are some of God’s favorite people. The poor God has in his hand. Do good to God’s favorites and receive the fullness of his blessings.

Website design By BotEap.comFor the LORD your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great, mighty, and fearsome God, who is no respecter of persons nor accepts crumbs. He defends the cause of the orphan and the widow, and he loves the foreigner who resides among you, giving them food and clothing.

Website design By BotEap.comDuet: 10:17-18

Website design By BotEap.comThose who give to the poor will lack nothing, but those who close their eyes receive many curses.

Website design By BotEap.comProverbs 28:27