Empty

My assignment for this week is simple enough.
I have been asked a question: How do God's children bless Him?
Now, I must try to answer it.

The first ideas that flood my mind are simply, elementary.
The Psalms talk about us blessing God, right?
How do we do that? By praise, worship, prayer, etc.
But how do we do this today? The same way of course.
Perhaps the way we live every moment can be our blessing to God.

But then a friend asks; can we bless God? Can flawed humans bless the Holy One?

I shudder, pull back even, perhaps this is true. Perhaps we cannot bless God.
My mind races.
But quickly I remember. Quickly His Word fills my mind, and I reply: of course we can bless God. He has created us with that ability.

But what am I really saying? I'm not sure I even believe myself, or even know what I'm saying.
What does it REALLY mean for us to bless God? How do we do this?
Am I doing it in my life today? Is it possible?

To answer this question, I first looked up all the verses that mention blessing God, or blessing others.
Here is a small sample:

Psalm 66:8 - Bless our God.

Psalm 103:1-2 - Bless the LORD, o my soul, and all that is within me, bless His Holy Name!
Bless the LORD, o my soul, and forget not all His benefits.

Psalm 134:1 - Come, bless the LORD, all you servants of the LORD.

Psalm 145:21 - Let all flesh bless His Holy Name forever and ever.

Psalm 63:4 - I will bless You as long as I live; in Your Name I will lift up my hands.

So...blessing is essentially praise.

This next quote is from John Piper:
"My thesis is that in the Scripture when God "blesses" men they are thereby helped and strengthened and made better off than they were before, but when men "bless" God he is not helped or strengthened or made better off. Rather (with C. A. Keller in THAT, I, 361) man's blessing God is an "expression of praising Thankfulness" (ein lobendes Danksagen), when the OT speaks of blessing God it does not "designate a pro­cess that aims at the increase of God's strength" (THAT, I, 361). It is an "exclamation of gratitude and admiration" (THAT, I, 357)."

This makes complete and total sense.
But is there more?
Is blessing God simply praising Him and giving Him thanks?

Part of me says yes, and part of me says no.

My thought is this: the beatitudes clearly teach "blessed are those."
The new testament teaches that we are the bride of Christ, His chosen ones.
We are clearly taught to give to others because of what God has blessed us with.
We are told that the way that we love reveals our hearts.
So, if we are told to do all of this...

"If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, and one of you says to them, "Go in peace, be warmed and filled," without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that?" - James 2

Can this idea be the beginning of what it means for us to bless God today?
Could it be that we bless God by blessing others?
By taking the blessings that God has given us, and turning around and blessing others with that blessing?
Perhaps.

Next, I turned to a book I've been reading recently..."A Thousand Gifts."
Actually, the book hit me in the face. The words jumped off the page and answered my question more beautifully than I ever imagined.

The majority of the rest of this post is from "A Thousand Gifts," written by Ann Voskamp. I wholeheartedly recommend reading this book.


"In the October mist, eucharisteo opens the eyes, the heart, to the grace that falls upon us, a drop, a river, a waterfall of blessing filling our emptiness. It falls into the open hand and makes life a paradise again. We wonder: If eucharisteo had led us to let go and open the hand to receive all His shimmering river of gifts, how can we now close the hand?
If I close these fingers, try to hold, hoard the river-dam up the grace-won't the water grow stagnant?
Fullness grows foul. Grace is alive, living waters. If I dam up the grace, hold the blessings tight, joy within dies...waters that have no life.
I turn my hand over, spread my fingers open. I receive grace. And through me, grace could flow on. Like a cycle of water in continuous movement, grace is meant to fall, a rain...again, again, again. I could share the grace, multiply the joy, extend the table of the feast, enlarge the paradise of His presence. I am blessed. I can bless. A life contemplating the blessings of Christ becomes a life acting the love of Christ.
All the pieces are finding their place."

The author then cites John 13, which is the account of the last supper, and then proceeds by saying:
"Jesus is about to let flesh be broken with nail, heart be broken with rejection, the chains be broken with bleeding love. And in His last hours before His earthly end, He doesn't run out to buy something or catch a flight to go see something, but He wraps a towel around His waist and kneels low to take the feet of His forsakers gently in hand and wash away the grime between their toes.
This is the full-bodied eucharisteo, the eucharisteo that touches body and soul: hands and knees and feet awash in grace.
At the last, this is what will determine a fulfilling, meaningful life, a life that, behind all the facades, every one of us longs to live: gratitude for the blessings that expresses itself by becoming the blessing.
Eucharisteo is giving thanks for grace. But in the breaking and giving of bread, in the washing of feet, Jesus makes it clear that eucharisteo is, yes, more: it is giving grace away. Eucharisteo is the hand that opens to receive grace, then, with thanks, breaks the bread; that moves out into the larger circle of life and washes the feet of the world with that grace. Without the breaking and giving, without the washing of feet, eucharisteo isn't complete. The Communion service is only complete in service. Communion, by necessity, always leads us into community.
Eucharisteo means "to give thanks," and give is a verb, something that we do. God calls me to do thanks. To give the thanks away. That thanks-giving might literally become thanks-living. That our lives become the very blessings we have received.
I am blessed. I can bless. I could let Him make me the gift.
When the eyes of the heart focus on God, and the hands on always washing the feet of Jesus alone-work returns to its purest state: eucharisteo. The work becomes worship, a liturgy of thankfulness."

"The word we do is only our love for Jesus in action...If we pray the work...if we do it to Jesus, if we do it for Jesus, if we do it with Jesus....that's what makes us content" - Mother Teresa.

"This is what makes us content - the contented, deep joy is always in the touching of Christ-in whatever skin He comes to us in.

Christian hands never clasp
and He doesn't give gifts for gain
because a gift can never stop being a gift-
it is always meant to be given.

In an endless cycle of grace, He gives us gifts to serve the world. This is how to make a life great and eucharisteo embarks us on the path: "Whoever wants to be a leader among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first among you must become your slave."

Isaiah 58 -
Feed the hungry,
and help those in trouble.
Then your light will shine out from the darkness,
and the darkness around you will be as bright as noon.
The LORD will guide you continually,
giving you water when you are dry
and restoring your strength.
You will be like a well-watered garden, like an ever-flowing spring.


It's the fundamental, lavish, radical nature of the upside-down economy of God.
Empty to fill.

While the Deceiver jockeys to dupe us into thinking otherwise, we who are made in the image of God, being formed into Christ's likeness, our happiness comes, too, not in the having but in the handing over. Give your life away in exchange for many lives, give away your blessings to multiply blessings, give away so that many might increase, and do it all for the love of God. I can bless, pour out, be broken and giving in our home and the larger world and never fear that there won't be enough to give. Eucharisteo has taught me to trust that there is always enough God. He has no end. He calls us to serve, and it is Him who we serve, but He, very God, kneels down to serve us as we serve. The servant-hearted never serve alone. Spend the whole of your one wild and beautiful life investing in many lives, and God simply will not be outdone. God extravagantly pays back everything we give away and exactly in the currency that is not of this world but the one we yearn for: Joy in Him.

It is our very presence in each other's lives that make us the gift. It is by the very function of our being, not our doing, that we are the beloved of God. And so we become the love of God, blessing those He loves.
God answers our pleas for a fulfilling life with His promise: 'I will bless you...and you will be a blessing.' - Genesis 12:2

God can enter into me, even me, and use these hands, these feet, to be His love, a love that goes on and on and on forever, endless cycle of grace." - A Thousand Gifts.

When we tangibly love Christ, in whatever skin He comes to us in, we bless God.

Blessing God is wrapped up in love.