THE BLESSED MOMMA

THE BLESSED MOMMA

Proverbs 31:28 (KJV)

Her children arise up, and call her blessed; her husband also, and he praiseth her.

Not long ago someone in the church gave me a framed piece of scripture.

Numbers 6:24-26 (KJV)

The LORD bless thee, and keep thee:

The LORD make his face shine upon thee, and be gracious unto thee:

The LORD lift up his countenance upon thee, and give thee peace.

It was on the occasion of my 35^thanniversary of being ordained in the ministry, and they gave it to me because they had observed that I believe in pronouncing a blessing on the church and the members of it.

It is true that I do that, but I hadn’t realized that anyone else had caught onto it.

Over the last several months I have been 

·      Praying each night at 6:00 PM for the Lord’s blessing upon our country’s leaders and our soldiers.

I have recently expanded that to: 

·      Praying for God’s blessings on my family at 9:00 each morning and

·      Praying for God’s blessings upon our church each day at noon.

I would like to get 

·      As many people as I can to join me in prayer for our country

·      As many of my family as I can to pray with me for our family and

·      As many of our church members as I can to pray with me for our church

I set the alarm on my phone for each of these three times.

It doesn’t have to be a long prayer – a minute or less. The point is to enlist a group, perhaps ever widening, to pray for the same thing at the same time.

Jesus said in Matthew 18:19 (KJV)

Again I say unto you, That if two of you shall agree on earth as touching any thing that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of my Father which is in heaven.

Obviously, the concept of the blessing has been on my mind lately.

So my attention was captured upon the thought of Proverbs 31:28a (KJV)

Her children arise up, and call her blessed;

The word “blessed” means happy.

Technically, to bless a person is to pray for their happiness.

But I take it from Numbers chapter 6 that there is more implied than merely wishing for another’s happiness. 

I. GOD’S ANOINTING

Listen to, Numbers 6:22-27 (KJV)

And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying,

Speak unto Aaron and unto his sons, saying, On this wise ye shall bless the children of Israel, saying unto them,

The LORD bless thee, and keep thee:

The LORD make his face shine upon thee, and be gracious unto thee:

The LORD lift up his countenance upon thee, and give thee peace.

And they shall put my name upon the children of Israel; and I will bless them.

Moses was told to tell Aaron and his sons, the priests to bless the people saying, The LORD bless thee, and keep thee:

The LORD make his face shine upon thee, and be gracious unto thee:

The LORD lift up his countenance upon thee, and give thee peace.

The blessing included:

·      Happiness

·      Protection

·      God’s pleasure

·      God’s grace 

·      God’s presence and

·      God’s peace

God said they were to bless the people by saying that and that God, in turn, would put His name on them and bless them.

To be blessed of God, it seems to me, infers something akin to anointing.

It is to have the hand of God upon your life.

Proverbs 31:28a (KJV)

Her children arise up, and call her blessed;

I wonder Mom, could your children rise up and testify that you have the hand of God upon your life?

To be blessed implies also,

II. GOD’S FRUITFULNESS

Genesis 1:27-28 (KJV)

So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.

And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.

I imagine that most mothers especially see this passage as in instruction to have children.

That is undoubtedly part of it, but fruitfulness, blessedness, involves so much more.

In Genesis 1:22, God blessed the whales and the winged creatures and told them to be fruitful and multiply.

This blessing is simply the course of nature.

But God did something more with Adam and Eve.

He blessed them and told them to be fruitful and

·      Multiply

·      Replenish the earth

·      Subdue the earth and

·      Have dominion “over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.”

Reproduction was the “animal” part of the blessing.

The divine part of the blessing was dominion– may I say success.

To illustrate this, allow me to show you a passage that is a demonstration of the opposite of this blessing.

Haggai 1:3-11 (KJV)

Then came the word of the LORD by Haggai the prophet, saying,

Is it time for you, O ye, to dwell in your cieled houses, and this house lie waste?

Now therefore thus saith the LORD of hosts; Consider your ways.

Ye have sown much, and bring in little; ye eat, but ye have not enough; ye drink, but ye are not filled with drink; ye clothe you, but there is none warm; and he that earneth wages earneth wages to put it into a bag with holes.

Thus saith the LORD of hosts; Consider your ways.

Go up to the mountain, and bring wood, and build the house; and I will take pleasure in it, and I will be glorified, saith the LORD.

Ye looked for much, and, lo, it came to little; and when ye brought it home, I did blow upon it. Why? saith the LORD of hosts. Because of mine house that is waste, and ye run every man unto his own house.

Therefore the heaven over you is stayed from dew, and the earth is stayed from her fruit.

And I called for a drought upon the land, and upon the mountains, and upon the corn, and upon the new wine, and upon the oil, and upon that which the ground bringeth forth, and upon men, and upon cattle, and upon all the labour of the hands.

Israel had gone back to the Promised Land after seventy years of captivity.

They were in the Promised Land, but they had focused on the wrong things. 

They were trying to get themselves re-established. 

They were attempting to have dominion, if you will, over the land.

But they had their priorities all wrong.

·      They had planted crops

·      They had started businesses and

·      They had constructed houses

But they had not built a house of worship.

Consequently, God had withheld His blessing, and they had not been fruitful.

·      They had worked hard but had taken little in

·      They had saved what they could, but it spilt out like a money bag with holes

·      They dreamed big, but their goals got shot down

God said the problem was His house. If they would build up His house, He would once again make them fruitful.

Proverbs 31:28a (KJV)

Her children arise up, and call her blessed;

I wonder Mom, would your children rise up and call you fruitful?

To be blessed implies thirdly

III. TO BELONG TO GOD

Genesis 2:2-3 (KJV)

And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made.

And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made.

The evolutionists cringe at this passage of Scripture.

Did you know that evolutionary scientists do not agree about how evolution happened?

Their models are so full of holes that they come up with dozens of evolutionary theories; some subscribing to one theory, and some to another.

The only thing they agree one is – there can be no God who created it.

And all the while they are trying to figure out how everything evolved the unsuspecting follow blindly along believing that these scientists are smart so they must be right.

How much simpler is the Word of God!

God created everything that exists in six literal days.

·      The evening and the morning were the first day

·      The evening and the morning were the second day

and so on.

God spoke everything that is into existence in six days.

And on the seventh day, He rested.

And then the Bible says He blessed that day and sanctified it.

·      He separated it from all the rest of the days

·      He made it different

He took possession of it and expected that those who love Him would treat it differently because of Him.

There are several words in the Bible that have a similar meaning:

·      Sanctify

·      Saint

·      Holy

·      Hallowed

They all mean to be set apart from the rest of the world and to the Lord.

Proverbs 31:28a (KJV)

Her children arise up, and call her blessed;

I wonder Mom, would your children rise up and call you holy, belonging to the Lord?

Conclusion

I want to be blessed, don’t you?

Perhaps more so, I want my wife, my family and my children to recognize that I am blessed.

·  Anointed by God

·  Fruitful and

·  Holy