The Greatest Blessing – Jesus

Jesus Blesses the Children

Scripture Reference: Mark 10:13-16

Suggested Emphasis: Jesus loved little children and that we too should take special care of the children we are around.

Story Overview:

When mothers brought their small children to Jesus to be blessed by him, the disciples tried to hold them back. Jesus told the disciples to let the children come to him.

Background Study:

People were bringing little children to Jesus for him to place his hands on them, but the disciples rebuked them. When Jesus saw this, he was indignant.

He said to them, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. Truly I tell you, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God a little child will never enter it.

” And he took the children in his arms, placed his hands on them and blessed them.  Mark 10:13-16, NIV

You can read other accounts of this story in Matthew 19:13-15 and Luke 18:15-17. This is one of those stories that children love because it is about children!

Other than what we can learn through his actions we do not know a lot about Jesus’ demeanour. He definitely had strong emotions. He was indignant when the disciples tried to keep the children away. He was not afraid to rebuke them.

This controlled strength along with a genuine attitude and openness drew people to Jesus.

Mothers want what is best for their children. They had seen Jesus do wonderful things. He had healed people and brought comfort to even the lowliest people in society.

It was the custom for mothers to bring their children to a rabbi or synagogue leader before their first birthday. In this story the children were very young.

Luke says they were babies (Luke 18:15) and all three passages refer to them as “little”. They were old enough to be “called to him.”

Matthew and Mark both record this story immediately following Jesus’ discussion on divorce. It was appropriate that these mothers and children come to him at this time. If women were mistreated and lacked power in the society of the time then children were even more so. Their innocence and sense of humility and hope were attributes that Jesus wanted his disciples to notice.

Jesus wants his followers to be children. In Matthew 18:2-6 he drew a child onto his knee and told the listeners that they should be the child. In that instance he was referring to a child’s humility.

The idea becomes “I’ll do something for you (or feel good towards you) if it benefits me”.

In that same passage Jesus makes it clear how we should treat children. By treating children well we are treating Jesus well. Giving children opportunities to sin (by neglecting them or withholding the care they need) is strongly condemned by Jesus (Matthew 18:5-6).

Jesus’ words concerning children were extremely important and contrasted with practices of pagans of the day.  It was common practice in both Greece and Rome to abandon unwanted children by the road to let them die.  Later, early Christians were known for taking in these orphans.

Another passage where Jesus speaks about adults being children is 1 Peter 2:2-3. We should crave pure spiritual milk a baby craves milk.

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Way to Introduce the Story:

Bring a doll to class and talk to the children about ways we take care of a baby. Talk about how much babies and children need affection and love. Discuss child safety and the foods babies and children need and .

A young mother might be willing to bring her baby to class and talk about how she cares for her baby. Perhaps she could show the contents of her nappy bag and explain the use of each item. “Babies need special care.

In today’s story we are going to learn what Jesus said about babies and children.”

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The Story:

One day, after Jesus had been teaching people about God, some mothers started bringing their babies and little children to Jesus.

“Jesus,” one of the mothers asked, “you are such a good teacher. Will you please place your hand on my child’s head and give her a blessing?”

Jesus was very happy to bless the little children. He loved children.

But the disciples saw all of the mothers and children around Jesus and they thought they were bothering him. They knew that Jesus must have been very tired from teaching all the adults. Surely he wouldn’t want to spend time with all of these children! So the disciples began telling the mothers and children to go away and leave Jesus alone.

Jesus saw what the disciples were doing and he did not it. That just wasn’t fair to the children! Jesus told the disciples to stop, “Shame on you, stop telling the children they cannot come to me.”

After Jesus spent time with the children, he told the disciples something very important. “See these little children? See how they love me? They don’t brag or try to hurt anyone some adults do. The kingdom of heaven is made for people who have hearts little children.”

The disciples were very surprised. They were sorry they had kept the children away from Jesus. Now they knew that Jesus thought children were very important. If Jesus loved the little children then so would they.

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Review Questions:

1. What did the mothers want Jesus to give their children? A blessing.
2. What did the disciples do when mothers brought their children to Jesus? They tried to keep the children away.
3. When Jesus saw the disciples keeping the children away, what did he say? “Let the little children come to me”

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Learning Activities and Crafts:

(How to choose the best learning activities for my teaching situation)

Activities:

• Make arrangements with the teacher in a younger bible class and let the children visit today (or next week). Perhaps your class could act out today’s story for them or teach them a song.
• Discuss how Children learn at different age levels.
• Collect names and addresses of children who live in other places and send them cards.
• A nice bulletin board idea is to place a picture of Jesus in the centre of the board and then put children’s pictures all around. These could be pictures from magazines or even photos of the children in your class. You could entitle the board “Who does Jesus Love” or “Jesus Loves the Children”.
• Help the children plan a picnic, party or other activity for younger children in the congregation. If your class is old enough then they might arrange a free babysitting night so that parents of young children could have a night out.
• Encourage the class to sit by a family with small children in worship today. They should only do this if they can be a good example for the child. Parents will not want another child to be a distraction.
• If your congregation has a crèche or childcare during worship then your class could sign up to help in there one Sunday.
• Find out about characteristics of children younger than the children in your class and discuss them.  Children love to know how much they have grown and are often eager to help younger children.  There are many online resources but here is one at //urbanext.illinois.edu/babysitting/section2.cfm
• Song Suggestions:
  • Jesus Loves the Little Children
  • Jesus Loves Me
  • 1,2,3 Jesus Loves Me

   Crafts:

• Help the children collect items to take to the local hospital for the children there. You could make parcels and decorate them. Some ideas might be colouring sheets and crayons, puzzles, books, hand or finger puppets, etc. If you put food or lollies in the parcels then be sure and label them. Some children in hospitals have strict diets.
• Help the children make parcels similar to the ones above to hand to younger children in your congregation.
• Help the children make paper doll chains of children and decorate them to look children.

Check the Teaching Ideas page on this website for ideas that are adaptable to any lesson.

Click here “Jesus Blesses the Children” printables to print on A4 size paper
Click here for “Jesus Blesses the Children” to print on Letter size paper (USA)

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Other Online Resources:

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Источник: //missionbibleclass.org/new-testament/part1/life-of-christ-late/jesus-blesses-the-children/

5 Great Bible Verses About Children Being A Blessing

Here are five of the greatest Bible verses about children being a blessing.

Psalm 127:3-5 “Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord, the fruit of the womb a reward. arrows in the hand of a warrior are the children of one’s youth. Blessed is the man who fills his quiver with them! He shall not be put to shame when he speaks with his enemies in the gate.”

Children are no mistake or accident.

The day of their birth was long ago determined by God as the psalmist wrote, “Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them” (Psalm 139:16) so children are a blessing or gift from God not unexpected and they should be given thanks for to God. What greater joy is there than to be at the birth or hear the news that a child of yours has been born! So too is there joy in heaven when one is born again through faith in Christ (Luke 15:7, 10).

John 16:21 “When a woman is giving birth, she has sorrow because her hour has come, but when she has delivered the baby, she no longer remembers the anguish, for joy that a human being has been born into the world.”

When a person is born again, they experience growing pains in the faith, but later, it yields a fruitful harvest born of the Spirit of God and the fruits of the Spirit are made manifest for everyone to see and so here, Jesus is acknowledging the joy that is received when a human being is born to a family. They are a great blessing to everyone in the family; parents, grandparents, uncles, aunts, and so on. This is a joyful occasion by all means and all of the intense pain involved in the birth of the child seems to pale in comparison to the great joy of having a new baby in the family.

Matthew 18:1-3 “At that time the disciples came to Jesus, saying, “Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?” And calling to him a child, he put him in the midst of them and said, “Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.”

In teaching His disciples about humility, Jesus pointed them to the nature of children.

He took a child in His arms and said, unless you turn and become children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven” and what He was saying is that everyone must humble themselves.

They must have a child faith and they must trust in the Savior or they cannot be saved. God will oppose anyone who is proud (James 4:6) but will extend His grace only to the humble.

Proverbs 17:6 “Grandchildren are the crown of the aged, and the glory of children is their fathers.”

As a grandfather myself, I take great joy in my grandchildren, even though they live far from me and I can’t see them very often but that doesn’t mean I can’t pick up the phone and call them and keep in touch.

Solomon, who possibly by this time had grandchildren of his own, wrote that children are a crown to the grandparents and the glory of their parents, or in other words, they are very proud of them and most precious in their sight.

For grandparents, it’s having their own children all over again but without all the responsibility and grandparents play a key role in their grandchildren’s lives.

Matthew 18:10 “See that you do not despise one of these little ones. For I tell you that in heaven their angels always see the face of my Father who is in heaven.”

Once more, Jesus is speaking about the children and those who would offend one of these would be in serious trouble with the Father in heaven because He sees everything that happens.

In this paragraph, Jesus may have actually been speaking about newer believers or those new to the faith because they are more easily led astray so Jesus asks, “What do you think? If a man has a hundred sheep, and one of them has gone astray, does he not leave the ninety-nine on the mountains and go in search of the one that went astray? And if he finds it, truly, I say to you, he rejoices over it more than over the ninety-nine that never went astray. So it is not the will of my Father who is in heaven that one of these little ones should perish” (Matt 18:12-14). Either way, we have read that children are a blessing from God and not to be despised, and consequently, we should give thanks to God for them.

Conclusion

I could have also included Mark 10:14 where Jesus says “Let the children come to me; do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of God” because the idea behind this verse shows that a person must have the humility of a child, the teach-ability of a child, and the faith of a child. This is behind the idea of humbling ourselves before God, confessing our sins to Him, repenting of our sins, and putting our trust in Christ. Then, as a child of God, the greatest blessings of all are still yet to come (Rev 22).

Article by Jack Wellman

Jack Wellman is Pastor of the Mulvane Brethren Church in Mulvane Kansas. Jack is also the Senior Writer at What Christians Want To Know whose mission is to equip, encourage, and energize Christians and to address questions about the believer’s daily walk with God and the Bible. You can follow Jack on Google Plus or check out his book Teaching Children the Gospel available on Amazon.

Источник: //www.patheos.com/blogs/christiancrier/2016/03/15/5-great-bible-verses-about-children-being-a-blessing/

Seeking the Blessing, but not the Blesser

Then the eyes of the blind will be opened, and the ears of the deaf will be unstopped. Then the lame will leap a deer, and the tongue of the dumb will shout for joy.

– Isaiah 35:5–6

And Jesus withdrew to the sea with His disciples; and a great multitude from Galilee followed; and also from Judea, and from Jerusalem, and from Idumea, and beyond the Jordan, and the vicinity of Tyre and Sidon, a great multitude heard of all that He was doing and came to Him. And He told His disciples that a boat should stand ready for Him because of the multitude, in order that they might not crowd Him; for He had healed many, with the result that all those who had afflictions pressed about Him in order to touch Him.

– Mark 3:7–10

News of Jesus spread quickly throughout the land.

Hundreds of years earlier, a Hebrew prophet wrote that with the coming of God’s promised Deliverer, the blind would see, the deaf would hear, the lame would leap a deer, those who could not speak would shout for joy, and good news would be proclaimed! Some, whose hope was set on God’s promised Deliverer, were asking, “Is Jesus the One?” Many were not as concerned with who He was as with what He could do for them.

– The HOPE, Chapter 9

Observe & Consider

As Jesus traveled about the land teaching and doing miracles, the word about Him quickly spread. From Mark 3:7-10 we read that a great multitude from many different regions had heard what Jesus was doing and came to Him. But after further consideration of this verse, notice what is revealed about their motives.

They wanted something from Him. They came for healing, but Jesus wanted to teach them who He was. He did heal many, as the verse reads, but Jesus was not primarily interested in healing physical ailments.

According to Bible teacher Ray Stedman, “He had a greater mission – to teach and preach the Word to them so as to heal the hurt of the heart and the spirit.”1 The crowd was making this very difficult because of their focus upon the physical.

This is still happening today, as crowds clamor for the power, but not the person of Jesus. Anticipating this would happen, Jesus instructed His disciples to prepare for Him a way of escape.

When the people pressed in to touch Him, making it impossible for Him to continue teaching, He would withdraw by boat. In Matthew 13:1-5, Mark 4:1 and Luke 5:3, we read that Jesus actually taught from a boat.

Notice what is actually taking place in this story. The people wanted something from Jesus: their physical healing. It wasn’t wrong for them to seek physical healing, but they made it such a priority, pressing in on Jesus, that they ultimately failed to get what they were after. They sought after the blessing more than the Blesser.

Ask & Reflect

• Do you imagine you would have been any different than the people who sought after Jesus for healing? Why or why not?
• Do you see any parallels between this story and the way people approach Jesus in our time? Explain.
• Read and meditate on the verses below. What do they say about those who would seek God and the gifts He gives?

Decide & Do

It is not wrong to seek help, healing or blessing from God.

In Matthew 7:9-11 we read, “Or what man is there among you, when his son shall ask him for a loaf, will give him a stone? Or if he shall ask for a fish, he will not give him a snake, will he? If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more shall your Father who is in heaven give what is good to those who ask Him!”

As our heavenly Father, God loves to bless. In fact, He receives glory when He does for us what we cannot do for ourselves. The main question we should ask after today’s lesson isn’t whether or not it is good to seek blessing from God. The main question we should ask is whether we are seeking the blessing over the One who blesses.

“But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness; and all these things shall be added to you.”
– Matthew 6:33

“Delight yourself in the Lord; And He will give you the desires of your heart.”
– Psalm 37:4

1Ray Stedman, The Dimming of the Light, from his sermon series The Servant Who Rules. (© Ray Stedman Ministries, 2010). (//www.raystedman.org/new-testament/mark/the-dimming-of-the-light). Retrieved August 2013.

Scripture quotations taken from the NASB

Источник: //www.thehopeproject.com/en/study-guide/9-the-ministry-of-jesus/seeking-the-blessing-but-not-the-blesser

Loving Jesus: The Ultimate Blessing

There is no doubt that Jesus loves each one of us with an everlasting love. The question is whether or not we love Jesus in return.  We might think or say that we do, but then, do our day-to-day lives reflect these words, or are we just paying Him lip service?  Are we lukewarm toward Him, at the same time that we are on-fire for our jobs, our entertainment, or our vices?

What is Love?

So what is love?  Is it a gooey, feel-good emotion? Is it a sexual urge?  Is it wanting someone for what they can do for us? No, it is none of those things.

Love is wanting the absolute best for someone, no matter the personal sacrifices we have to make in order to achieve that greater good.

Jesus Himself showed us what true love is, by sacrificing Himself on the cross for us, even though it was our sins that placed Him on that cross. To love someone is to imitate Christ, the epitome of true love.

Jesus left us two great commandments, in Matthew 22:36-40:

1. You shall love the Lord thy God with your whole heart, soul, and mind;
2. You shall love your neighbor as yourself.

These commands of God seem pretty straightforward, but in reality, do we even tell God on a daily basis that we love him?  Do we really love our neighbor, or do we just ignore them and/or just put up with them?  And notice that love, rather than faith, is foremost in these two great commandments. Those who believe that we are saved by “faith alone” might want to ponder this biblical reality.

The Bible Speaks About Love

The Bible has much to say about love. 1 Corinthians 13:13 tells us:

”So faith, hope, love remain, these three;but the greatest of these is love.”

Here St. Paul says that love is the most important virtue of three very important, everlasting qualities, along with faith and hope. It would seem once again, that “faith alone” is not enough to save us.

  Faith is certainly important, but it is only one leg of a three legged stool.  Without the other two legs of hope and love, we all fall flat.

Faith is a gift from God; our love for God and love for our neighbor in return for this gift are our responses.

Love can even get our sins forgiven. Luke 7:47:

“So I tell you, her many sins have been forgiven; hence, she has shown great love.But the one to whom little is forgiven, loves little.” 

“Amen, I say to you, whatever you did for one of these least brothers of mine, you did for me,”

then we should also start being kind to the less fortunate who beg us for money, time, or food, because we are not only doing it for Christ, we are doing it to Christ.

In John 15:9-12, Jesus says the following:

“As the Father loves me, so I also love you. Remain in my love.If you keep my commandments, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and remain in his love. I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and your joy may be complete.This is my commandment: love one another as I love you.”

Here we learn the astounding fact that Jesus loves us as much as the Father loves Him.  That ought to shake each and every one of us our slumbering Christianity and alert us to the depth of love Jesus has for us, no matter what our sinful state in life.

 Why?  Because the Father loves His Son Jesus with an INFINITE love, and that is how much Jesus loves us.  And all we have to do to remain in His everlasting love is to keep His commandments and to love one another.

This may be hard to do at times, but what a payback (everlasting joy in heaven).  Infinite love for us from the creator of the universe is something that is hard to fathom, but that fact should make us happier than we’ve ever been.

What could possibly be better than being loved without limits by the same Creator who created everything from nothing?

St. Paul says in Romans 13:10:

“Love does no evil to the neighbor; hence, love is the fulfillment of the law.”

What could be plainer than this?  To fulfill the New Covenant law isn’t some courtroom declaration of a stern judge who carefully weighs the evidence for and against us.

Instead, we learn from God-breathed scripture that love itself is the fulfillment of the law. Love and law may seem to be two very different things in our minds, but here, scripture links the two together forever.

Paul has a great soliloquy about love in 1 Corinthians 13:1-7:

“If I speak in human and angelic tonguesbut do not have love, I am a resounding gong or a clashing cymbal.And if I have the gift of prophecy and comprehend all mysteries and all knowledge; if I have all faith so as to move mountains but do not have love, I am nothing.

If I give away everything I own, and if I hand my body over so that I may boast but do not have love, I gain nothing.Love is patient, love is kind.

It is not jealous, [love] is not pompous, it is not inflated,it is not rude, it does not seek its own interests, it is not quick-tempered, it does not brood over injury,it does not rejoice over wrongdoing but rejoices with the truth.It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.” 

What St. Paul is telling us is that love is more important in our relationship with God and our neighbor than anything else. Love conquers our frail human nature. It conquers Satan. It conquers sin. It conquers hate. It can even conquer the world.

Love is what will get us into heaven one day.  Our inability to love (a sin of “omission”) should be confessed regularly, if that is one of our faults. What St. Paul is saying echoes St.

James, who tells us in James 2:26 that “faith without works is dead,” by saying in essence that faith without love is dead.

The Last Shall Be First

It’s always hard to think that Jesus could love us with all of our sinfulness, but if one takes a look at Holy Scripture, the sinful tax collector who repented and who was truly sorry for his sins was chosen by God over the proud, self-righteous “sin-free” Pharisee.

The adulterous woman who Jesus saved from stoning was also loved by Jesus, because she also repented with a contrite heart.  The good thief on the cross, who was probably a murderer (due to the sentence of crucifixion), was also saved in spite of his sins, because of his repentant heart. St.

Peter, even though he denied Christ three times, also learned that Jesus loved him infinitely, after he repented. Jesus asked Peter three times by a charcoal fire if he loved Him. This was because Peter had denied Christ three times, beside another charcoal fire, the night before the crucifixion.

God knows that our brokenness is caused by our sinful human nature and He is just waiting to be asked to fix it. Jesus loves repentant sinners who tell him that they are truly sorry, and who really depend on Him for everything (God is close to the humble and contrite heart).

  The self-reliant worldly people who never depend on God, the proud Esau and the arrogant Nimrod in the Old Testament, always seem to be at odds with Him.

Our relationship with God should be a small child who comes up to his parent with complete trust, and who asks for his bike to be fixed, or her doll to be repaired. A good father always loves it when his child needs his help, especially if he or she is in tears about something.

Just so, God is our loving Father, just waiting to be asked to fix our broken lives, if we only ask him with a contrite heart. Jesus even says that unless we become a little child, we will never enter the Kingdom of Heaven.

Practical Things to Do

So what are some practical things to do to overcome our human nature and to start loving, so that we can start living God’s commands?  Specific prayers can overcome whatever is blocking us from loving wholeheartedly.

Usually, one or more of the seven deadly sins is a love blocker.  These sins are lust, greed, gluttony, envy, anger, pride, and sloth.

  Going before the Blessed Sacrament after confessing these sins and asking God to remove them from our life, through the intercession of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, is a great way to remove these blockages.

Quotes from the Saints about Love

“What is the mark of love for your neighbor? Not to seek what is for your own benefit, but what is for the benefit of the one loved, both in body and in soul.”

–St. Basil the Great 

“You know well enough that Our Lord does not look so much at the greatness of our actions, nor even at their difficulty, but at the love with which we do them.”

–Saint Therese of Lisieux 

“Love is the most necessary of all virtues. Love in the person who preaches the word of God is fire in a musket.

If a person were to throw a bullet with his hands, he would hardly make a dent in anything; but if the person takes the same bullet and ignites some gunpowder behind it, it can kill. It is much the same with the word of God.

If it is spoken by someone who is filled with the fire of charity- the fire of love of God and neighbor- it will work wonders.”

–St. Anthony Mary Claret 

“There is no place for selfishness—and no place for fear! Do not be afraid, then, when love makes demands. Do not be afraid when love requires sacrifice”

–Pope St. John Paul II

“We become what we love and who we love shapes what we become. If we love things, we become a thing. If we love nothing, we become nothing. Imitation is not a literal mimicking of Christ, rather it means becoming the image of the beloved, an image disclosed through transformation. This means we are to become vessels of God´s compassionate love for others. ”

–St. Clare of Assisi

Источник: //www.catholicstand.com/loving-jesus-the-ultimate-blessing/

How to Bless Others Through Jesus Christ

Last updated on: September 4, 2018

Another very powerful tool we have in our arsenal as born-again believers is the ability to bless other people in the name of Jesus.

I think this is one of those benefits that we have forgotten how powerful it really is. We are so used to praying before our meals and asking God to bless the food with which we are about to eat, that we forget how much further we can really go with this privilege that we have already received from the Lord.

The ability to bless other people and other things is an extremely powerful prayer tool and every Christian should try and do it on some kind of a regular basis, as you never know how far God will actually work with you in this realm.

Here are some of the definitions on exactly what a blessing is from some of the different Bible Dictionaries:

• To bestow happiness or prosperity upon; praise and glorify
• Pronouncement of God’s gracious favor
• The act of declaring, or extending through pronouncement, God’s favor and goodness upon others

For those of you who were not aware of this incredible privilege that we have already received from the Lord, I will go ahead and give you some of the key verses from the Bible showing you that we have been definitely granted this type of authority and privilege from the Lord. I will then end this article giving you some examples of how you can use this powerful privilege in the name of Jesus.

As you will see with some of the examples I will give you below, there is literally an infinite number of things and situations that you can try and bless in the name of Jesus.

And when you do bless other people or other situations, real life spiritual transactions can actually take place with the person or situation you are blessing.

In other words, the Holy Spirit can actually move to impart the specific blessing that you have just prayed over someone.

The Scripture Verses

Here are 16 very good verses showing the wide variety of situations in which blessings were granted, either direct by God the Father, Jesus Christ, or some of His own people back in both the Old and New Testaments.

• “Assuredly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child will by no means enter it.” And He took them up in His arms and blessed them. (Mark 10:15-16)
• “The curse of the Lord is on the house of the wicked, but He blesses the habitation of the just.” (Proverbs 3:33)
• “And He led them out as far as Bethany, and He lifted up His hands and blessed them. Now it came to pass, while He blessed them, that He was parted from them and carried up into heaven.” (Luke 24:50)
• “Then He took the five loaves and the two fish, and looking up to heaven, He blessed and broke them, and gave them to the disciples to set before the multitudes.” (Luke 9:16)
• Then she spoke out with a loud voice and said, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb!” (Luke 1:42)
• “So Joshua blessed them and sent them away, and they went to their tents.” (Joshua 22:6)
• “You are the sons of the prophets, and of the covenant which God made with your fathers, saying to Abraham, ‘And in your seed all the families of the earth shall be blessed.'” (Acts 3:25)
• “When you have eaten and are full, then you shall bless the Lord your God for the good land which He has given you.” (Deuteronomy 8:10)
• “Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all of His benefits.” (Psalm 103:2)
• “With it we bless our God and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in the similitude of God.” (James 3:9)
• “Otherwise if you bless with the spirit, how will he who occupies the place of the uniformed say “Amen” at your giving of thanks, since he does not understand what you say?” (1 Corinthians 14:16)
• “The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not the communion of the body of Christ?” (1 Corinthians 10:16)
• And God blessed them, saying, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth.” (Genesis 1:22)
• “But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you.” (Matthew 5:44)
• “Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse.” (Romans 12:14)
• “But whatever house you enter, first say, ‘Peace to this house.’ And if the son of peace is there, your peace will rest on it; if not, it will return to you.” (Luke 10:5-6)

Notice in addition to God being able to directly bless us and we blessing other people in His name, that we can also directly bless God ourselves.

As you can see from the above verses, not only did God the Father bless in the Old Testament and Jesus blessed in the New Testament, but both the apostles in the New Testament and some of the patriarchs in the Old Testament also blessed others in the name of God.

When Jesus left and ascended to His Father, He told us to do what He did. He has thus given us His authority and His power to carry on His supernatural ministry. And part of that supernatural ministry is the right to be able to bestow blessings upon one another in His name.

Examples of What You Can Bless In the Name of Jesus

There are literally an infinite number of things you can bless in the name of Jesus. Just so you can see how far you can actually go with this privilege, here are a few examples.

• Bless the food you eat at every meal.
• Bless someone with peace if they have lost it due to an adverse development that may have just occurred in their life.
• Bless the baby a mother is carrying in her womb, and ask God to bless the mother with a perfectly normal healthy baby.
• Ask God to bless someone with a new job if they have just lost their job.
• Ask God to bless someone with knowledge and wisdom if they are having a hard time in trying to solve a personal problem.
• Ask God to bless your finances or someone else’s finances if they have run into trouble.
• Ask God to bless your house or any other valuable personal items you may have.
• Ask God to bless our country and our political leaders. Ask God to bless our leaders with His knowledge and wisdom so they can make the right decisions with the tough times we are now all facing.
• Ask God to bless any new adventure or any new job you are now taking.
• Ask God to personally bless you with His knowledge and wisdom so you can make all the right choices in this life.
• Ask God to bless you with favor at your place of employment.
• Bless the marriages of all of your children so they can stay under the hand and covering of God.
• Bless others with joy, peace, and happiness in the Lord.

As you can see from these types of examples, there are just a wide variety of things that you can bless in the name of Jesus. You can pronounce blessings on yourself, other people, different type of situations marriages and pregnancies, and actual objects your houses and some of your personal items and possessions.

How to Word a Blessing

For those of you who are looking on how to word a blessing, here are a few suggestions using some of the above examples.

• Father, in the name of Jesus, I ask that You bless the child in my wife’s womb and that You bless our child with perfect health and long life.
• Father, I ask that You bless Joe with a new job since he has just lost his job. Bless him with the right job for Your glory, in Jesus name.
• Father, please bless Susan with Your knowledge and wisdom to solve the personal problem that she is dealing with at work, in Jesus name.
• Father, in the name of Jesus, I ask that You bless the new job that I am about to take. I ask that You bless this job and also bless me with favor with both my bosses and the people that I will now be working with.
• Father, in the name of Jesus, I ask that You bless the marriage of my son Daniel and his new wife Tracy. I ask that You bless them with happiness, peace, joy, and long life in You. I ask that You also bless any children they may have. I ask that You bless each one of their children with perfect health and long life.
• Father, in the name of Jesus, I ask that You bless this country and bless the leaders of our country. I ask that You specifically bless them with Your knowledge and wisdom so they can make the right choices to keep this country safe, strong, and secure in You. I ask all of this in Jesus name.

Again, there are just an infinite number of things or situations that you can actually pray a blessing over in the name of Jesus.

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