How to Bless the Lord

How to Bless the Lord

how to bless the Lord
Have you ever wondered what it means to bless the Lord? Many, many times in the Psalms we are told to bless the Lord. What are we supposed to do? The Amplified Bible gives us an eye-opening answer:

Bless (affectionately, gratefully praise) the Lord, O my soul; and all that is [deepest] within me, bless His holy name! Bless (affectionately, gratefully praise) the Lord, O my soul, and forget not [one of] all His benefits. (Psalm 103:1-2, AMP, emphasis added,*)

Blessing the Lord means praising God affectionately and gratefully. I can do that. I want to do that. But it requires deliberate concentration, it does not happen automatically. I need to focus solely on God in order to praise him affectionately and gratefully. But by God’s grace we are all able to do that.

How about loving the Lord? What does that really mean? How are we supposed to act? The Amplified Bible gives us some more food for thought:

But if one loves God truly [with affectionate reverence, prompt obedience, and grateful recognition of His blessing], he is known by God [recognized as worthy of His intimacy and love, and he is owned by Him]. (1 Cor. 8:3, AMP, emphasis added,*)

We are to love the Lord with affectionate reverence, prompt obedience, and grateful recognition of his blessing. Again we are to focus on God affectionately and gratefully and respond to his promptings obediently. I want to do that. I can do that. Especially when I know God will supply me plenty of grace to do that if I just ask for it.

So let us all love and bless the Lord with all that we are. Let’s affectionately and gratefully praise the Lord. Let’s keenly follow Christ and be readily obedient to the guidance of the Holy Spirit.

 

Gracious God,
You are so much more than we can imagine.
We love you and we praise you and we are in awe of you.
We are grateful for your loving-kindness towards us.
Bless us according to your will.
We bless you forever and ever.
In Jesus’ name,
Amen

Q4U: How do you bless the Lord?

Be blessed, my fellow pilgrim, as you bless the Lord by affectionately and gratefully praising Him!

* [As you might have noticed, I enjoy reading the Bible in different translations and love comparing them. I have started linking the Bible verses to Biblegateway.com so you can easily read (and compare) them in the different versions I’ve used while preparing each post.]

Image courtesy of Travis Silva, design Mari-Anna Stålnacke. Linking up today with Faith-filled Fridays, Five Minute Friday and Faith Jam.

4 thoughts on “How to Bless the Lord

  1. Thanks for the “digging deeper” insights, Mari-Anna. I just looked up “affection,” and I love the definition of “tender attachment.” Oh, to tenderly attach ourselves to Jesus, needing Him 24/7, obeying Him out of grateful love.

    1. How delightful that you looked up ‘affection’! Thanks for letting me know, Trudy! I love the idea of tenderly attaching ourselves to Jesus. That’s faith right there. May God continue to lavish you with his gifts!

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