“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.”(Number 6:24-26 NKJV)
One of the college age individuals that is a recipient of Mark Writes meditations recently asked a good question, “Why on each one of the meditations do you put the expression “Be blessed?” I said, “Good question,” taking the position that no question is a bad question. I started my response by clarifying, “Most days I actually conclude with a related Scripture to encourage you to depend on the word of God and to be God conscious as you meditate on it more and more; both day and night. The Bible lets us know that if you do that, you will be like a tree firmly planted by the streams of water. The songwriter’s lyrics that go with that statement shows the end result I hope for, ‘I shall not; I shall not be moved. Just like a tree planted by the waters, I shall not be moved.’”
After making sure to point to the fact that the verse at the end of each meditation is a blessing itself, I said, “By saying, ‘Be blessed,’ I’m really expressing my hope that the Lord will bless you with the strength you need to make it through the day. And on top of that, with these mere two words, I am expressing my great hope that your reaction to what you just got through reading will make a positive difference in your life, as you too press on to higher ground; of course, committed to the climb.” I continued my diatribe or discourse, ”Saying ‘Be blessed’ is more than an expression at the end of some inspired composition, but it is positioned at the beginning of a new day where your life will hopefully be busy composing a living letter that communicates to others that Christ dwells in you!”
I went on further to say, “And if your mind cannot focus on what I have written on any given day; if something is on your mind or you are experiencing a perplexing time, ‘Be blessed,’ is a short prayer, a breath prayer, that the Lord will bless you, keep you, make His face to shine upon you, and be gracious to you, lift up His countenance upon YOU and give YOU peace.”
I think I gave the student the answer that was being sought because it produced a smile on the reader’s face. Now, if you are also one who has been saying, “You say ‘Be blessed all the time,’ I hope you start this week with a smile. Oh, two more things to tell you. First, trust in the Lord! Second, well of course: “Be blessed!”
“But blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord, whose confidence is in him.” (Jeremiah 17:7 NIV)
Still committed to the climb,
Mark L. King