In all the encounters where Jesus takes bread, he then lifts the bread up to God and blesses it. As beloved children, when we accept that we are taken or chosen, we are then blessed.
The world we live in doesn’t often lead us to believe that we are blessed. Life can seem difficult and completely the opposite of a blessed life – but then how do we mark blessedness? Do we see blessings as perfect health, wealth, plenty to eat and drink, a huge house, everything we could possibly want? If this is blessedness, how do people in the developing world feel blessed?
Having spent time in The Gambia and Sri Lanka, I’ve seen how the poorest people praise God for their many blessings, yet by our standards they have nothing. They see blessings as being alive, knowing the wonder of God’s creation, having enough for the day. They know God’s presence, and they feel blessed because of it.
Many hymns speak of the blessings of God, though perhaps most fitting are the words of Matt and Beth Redman’s ‘Blessed be your name’ (Singing the Faith 41), which speaks of knowing God’s blessings in the good times and the bad times, and remembering to thank God regardless what the world shows us.
Great and glorious God,
thank you for the many blessings that we have;
thank you for the life we have been blessed with,
for the glory and wonder of your creation that we are blessed to live in;
thank you for the blessings we find in other people,
and that we have as much as we need for each day.
Gracious and glorious God:
thank you!
Amen.
You can download this Prayer for the Week at here
Prayers for March 2019 by Revd Claire Rawlinson
Image: photo by Jack Sharp on Unsplash
