Our First Response, No. 172

Genesis 1:28, "And God blessed them, and God said to them..."

The first thing God did after creating Adam and Eve was to bless them. That was God's first response. We are created in God's image and therefore should have this same desire to bless people.

We can bless in different ways.

1. We bless people by what we say.

God blessed and "said to them..." What do you say when you open your mouth? Is your first response to bless? To bless your husband? To bless your children? To bless the people you come in contact with? It is a God-like habit we need to cultivate. Think about things you can say that will encourage, inspire and bless and then say them. Words of blessing can be exhilarating words that will gladden a person's heart. They can be exhorting words that will spark vision and revelation and release people to do great things. Blessing words inspire people to be what God created them to be.

The word for “bless” in the Hebrew is eulogeo from eu which means “good” and logos which means “word, speech.” If you are a blessing person as God created you to be you will constantly be speaking good words.

2. We bless people by what we impart.

We invoke blessings when we pray. Pray prayers of blessings over your husband, your children and others. Pray and bless those who persecute you and say evil things about you. (Matthew 5:44) The Lord commanded Moses and his sons to speak blessing over all the children of Israel. God wants us to pray this blessing over each other today: 

“The Lord bless you and keep you;

The Lord make his face shine upon you, and be gracious to you;

The Lord lift up his countenance upon you, and give you peace.”

Numbers 6:24-26

3. We bless people by what we do.

Actions speak louder than words. 1 John 3:17-18 says, "But whoso hath this world's good, and sees his brother have need, and shuts up his bowels of compassion from him, how dwells the love of God in him? My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue; but in deed and in truth."

Of course, we must always keep the Scripture in context. The context of God's blessing in this Scripture is the blessing of children. This was God's first blessing to the man and woman He created. This is how we receive children. By God's blessing. *If we want to be in sync with God, we will think of children as a blessing. No matter what the circumstances, a child is always a blessing. This is what God says, so we either believe God or we don't.

This should be our first response when we conceive a baby - "How awesome! God is blessing me!"

This should be our response when we hear the news of someone else having a baby - "God is blessing you. Isn't that wonderful?"

May you be blessed.

Love from NANCY CAMPBELL

PRAYER:

"Dear Father, you are a God of blessing. You have blessed me with life, salvation and every good gift. Please help me to be a blessing too. Help me to speak words of blessing to my family. Help me to make this a habit of my life so it is the first response to come from my lips. Amen."

AFFIRMATION:

"I have been blessed and therefore I bless."

* Check out the Scriptures in my book, Be Fruitful and Multiply , Chapter 3. We see here that every time God wanted to give children he first pronounced a blessing upon them.

Many women like to save these devotions. They print them out and keep them in a folder to read over and over again. Some print them out and pin them on the fridge with a magnet to read through the week.