“May the Lord bless you and protect you. May the Lord smile on you and be gracious to you. May the Lord show you His favor and give you His peace.” – Numbers 6:24-26
Has anyone ever tried to “bless” you by giving you something you didn’t earn?
A few weeks ago, our family was eating dinner in Ooltewah at a restaurant… and at the end of the meal, I asked for the check, and when I did, the waiter said… “Your meal has been taken care of.” He said, “There’s another family in here that wanted to bless you today!”
This was awesome! But as awesome as that is, I’m personally not very good at receiving blessings. Do you have a hard time receiving blessings too? Now, I love blessing other people, but I’m not very good at receiving blessings.
I think for many of us, we could say that today: When we are blessed by someone else, our first reaction is to shy away from it or even refuse the blessing, and the reason we do that is because we don’t want to feel like we’re in debt to someone else. When you receive a blessing, it’s almost like there’s something inside of you that says, “Now I’ve got to pay them back in the same way!”
But the problem with that is many of us carry that same mindset into our relationship with the Lord. We assume (1) that God doesn’t want to bless us, and (2) we think that If God does bless us, we’re going to have to pay Him back in some way.
The truth is, you can’t pay God back. There is nothing you can do to “get even” with God. The Lord doesn’t want us to feel like we “owe Him one” or that we are in debt to Him. A blessing is exactly the opposite. He blesses us without any expectation of a return.
That is exactly what a blessing is about: giving without expectation. The next time you receive a blessing, be thankful that you have received it. But that is it! Just be thankful. You do not always have to “return the favor.” Sometimes, God wants to just bless you. And you know what? All He wants you to do is receive it!