Christmas and New Year are at least in theory a nice time of year. It’s a time when family and friends get together, when we exchange gifts and when we express our love and good wishes for the future.
But what words might we use when we wish each other well?
‘Happy New Year’? ‘All the best’? ‘Good luck’? ‘Have a good one’?
These might be sincere and well-intentioned, but God’s people have the option of much better, of actually blessing others ‘in the name of the Lord’. Psalm 128 is a blessing used by Old Testament pilgrims attending festivals at the Temple in Jerusalem. There is first of all a declaration of the kind of benefits someone might expect when they have reverence for and obey the Lord. Believing individuals and their families can know peace, prosperity and fruitfulness. The worshippers then turn to each other and say, ‘May the Lord we believe in and worship here bless you like that!’
Even Isaiah, facing a time of God’s displeasure and discipline could look forward to times of restoration and renewal with great rejoicing. Our heavenly Father may need to humble us on occasions but does so with the desire that we should turn back to Him and, trusting, find new avenues of blessing.
What a wonderfully positive way to begin a new year together, with words of blessing in the significant and powerful name of the Almighty, the Maker of heaven and earth!
God’s name is, like His person, holy and should be treated with utmost reverence. This is important. One of the Ten Commandments solemnly warns against using God’s name in an unworthy manner. Sadly we’re all too used these days in hearing God and Jesus ridiculed and their names being used carelessly or contemptuously.
Some people say, ‘God damn it!’ They should be careful. God is listening and He just might! Some people say ‘Jesus’ as if it’s an ugly, obscene word. How can such people expect to share His resurrection when He returns in glory?
For Christians ‘Jesus’ is a beautiful, precious word. It means ‘Saviour/Deliverer’. ‘Call Him Jesus for He will save His people from their sins!’ He is our Saviour Who delivers us and we love Him. We will speak His name, but with gratitude, reverence and devotion! We will not use it as a curse but in blessing others for His honour and glory.
Of course it’s important to understand it requires more than just speaking certain words or formulas as if the ritual produces the magic. That’s not faith, that’s witchcraft.
When God’s people take His name on our lips we are identifying ourselves with Him. The Israelites would never take an oath in the name of a pagan god like Baal or Moloch. They would invite the Lord their God to be witness and bless the outcome of whatever promise they were making.
Jesus develops these ideas in the Gospels. He is God’s ‘only-begotten’ Son but everyone who puts their trust in Him becomes a spiritual child of God. We are taught to identify with Jesus and pray to God as our generous ‘Father in heaven’, trusting that He will readily give the help we need. ‘Ask and it will be given to you, seek and you will find, knock and the door will be opened to you’ Jesus says by way of encouragement. He goes further. He invites us to use His powerful name when we pray.
He urges His followers to stay closely connected to Him in faith and obedience and promises we shall receive fruitful results when we ask for things ‘in His name’. When we seek God’s will in the world, starting in our own lives and pray for the kind of things our Saviour would pray for it’s like speaking a command with authority - we open doors to blessing from heaven!
Oh just think with me for a moment! What benefit might we bring to our lives, our families, our congregation, our community and even wider afield if we would obey Jesus in this, seeking God’s blessing in His name and living to honour that name! Psalm 91 says God commissions His angels to guard those who take refuge in Him. Think of our children and grandchildren and let’s make it our business daily to pray for them God’s blessing and protection, His wisdom and direction in these anxious and confusing times.
Let’s note how Jesus’ early followers picked up on this almost immediately.
The Apostle Paul wrote 13 Spirit inspired ‘epistles’ which are preserved in the New Testament. Every one of them in its opening paragraphs contains this greeting which is in effect a prayer of blessing:
‘Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ’!
These are strong words, invoking the name of our Maker, our heavenly Father and the Son of God, our Saviour Jesus, the Christ, the King of kings and Lord of Lords. They’re not being used in a careless or contemptuous way like a curse but as a powerful means of inviting God’s blessing into human lives.
May we know God’s grace, His saving grace, the kindness we could never deserve, but may we know it for we need it! The forgiveness of our sins, the rescue from eternal destruction, the adoption as God’s children, the inheritance of resurrection glory and everlasting life. May it please Almighty God to touch us and those around us with His grace in Jesus! Let’s make this our constant prayer in this new year.
May we know His peace that passes understanding. The profound sense of wellbeing that we are no longer alienated but reconciled to heaven. That comforting light in the darkness that the Lord Who came to us vulnerable, born in a stable, will stay with us and help us in our most challenging days and through His good plan and purpose all will be well. Let’s pray we might be people who live and reflect this peace before others that many more might be persuaded this year to come and put their trust in our Lord and share His blessing!
2023 – will it be a year of blessing or curse, light or darkness in your life and mine? We must choose.
I say let’s choose life and love and light in the grace and peace of God! Let’s speak it and practice it and pray it for others every day and to the God of grace and His Son the Lord Jesus be glory and honour and praise!
But what words might we use when we wish each other well?
‘Happy New Year’? ‘All the best’? ‘Good luck’? ‘Have a good one’?
These might be sincere and well-intentioned, but God’s people have the option of much better, of actually blessing others ‘in the name of the Lord’. Psalm 128 is a blessing used by Old Testament pilgrims attending festivals at the Temple in Jerusalem. There is first of all a declaration of the kind of benefits someone might expect when they have reverence for and obey the Lord. Believing individuals and their families can know peace, prosperity and fruitfulness. The worshippers then turn to each other and say, ‘May the Lord we believe in and worship here bless you like that!’
Even Isaiah, facing a time of God’s displeasure and discipline could look forward to times of restoration and renewal with great rejoicing. Our heavenly Father may need to humble us on occasions but does so with the desire that we should turn back to Him and, trusting, find new avenues of blessing.
What a wonderfully positive way to begin a new year together, with words of blessing in the significant and powerful name of the Almighty, the Maker of heaven and earth!
God’s name is, like His person, holy and should be treated with utmost reverence. This is important. One of the Ten Commandments solemnly warns against using God’s name in an unworthy manner. Sadly we’re all too used these days in hearing God and Jesus ridiculed and their names being used carelessly or contemptuously.
Some people say, ‘God damn it!’ They should be careful. God is listening and He just might! Some people say ‘Jesus’ as if it’s an ugly, obscene word. How can such people expect to share His resurrection when He returns in glory?
For Christians ‘Jesus’ is a beautiful, precious word. It means ‘Saviour/Deliverer’. ‘Call Him Jesus for He will save His people from their sins!’ He is our Saviour Who delivers us and we love Him. We will speak His name, but with gratitude, reverence and devotion! We will not use it as a curse but in blessing others for His honour and glory.
Of course it’s important to understand it requires more than just speaking certain words or formulas as if the ritual produces the magic. That’s not faith, that’s witchcraft.
When God’s people take His name on our lips we are identifying ourselves with Him. The Israelites would never take an oath in the name of a pagan god like Baal or Moloch. They would invite the Lord their God to be witness and bless the outcome of whatever promise they were making.
Jesus develops these ideas in the Gospels. He is God’s ‘only-begotten’ Son but everyone who puts their trust in Him becomes a spiritual child of God. We are taught to identify with Jesus and pray to God as our generous ‘Father in heaven’, trusting that He will readily give the help we need. ‘Ask and it will be given to you, seek and you will find, knock and the door will be opened to you’ Jesus says by way of encouragement. He goes further. He invites us to use His powerful name when we pray.
He urges His followers to stay closely connected to Him in faith and obedience and promises we shall receive fruitful results when we ask for things ‘in His name’. When we seek God’s will in the world, starting in our own lives and pray for the kind of things our Saviour would pray for it’s like speaking a command with authority - we open doors to blessing from heaven!
Oh just think with me for a moment! What benefit might we bring to our lives, our families, our congregation, our community and even wider afield if we would obey Jesus in this, seeking God’s blessing in His name and living to honour that name! Psalm 91 says God commissions His angels to guard those who take refuge in Him. Think of our children and grandchildren and let’s make it our business daily to pray for them God’s blessing and protection, His wisdom and direction in these anxious and confusing times.
Let’s note how Jesus’ early followers picked up on this almost immediately.
The Apostle Paul wrote 13 Spirit inspired ‘epistles’ which are preserved in the New Testament. Every one of them in its opening paragraphs contains this greeting which is in effect a prayer of blessing:
‘Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ’!
These are strong words, invoking the name of our Maker, our heavenly Father and the Son of God, our Saviour Jesus, the Christ, the King of kings and Lord of Lords. They’re not being used in a careless or contemptuous way like a curse but as a powerful means of inviting God’s blessing into human lives.
May we know God’s grace, His saving grace, the kindness we could never deserve, but may we know it for we need it! The forgiveness of our sins, the rescue from eternal destruction, the adoption as God’s children, the inheritance of resurrection glory and everlasting life. May it please Almighty God to touch us and those around us with His grace in Jesus! Let’s make this our constant prayer in this new year.
May we know His peace that passes understanding. The profound sense of wellbeing that we are no longer alienated but reconciled to heaven. That comforting light in the darkness that the Lord Who came to us vulnerable, born in a stable, will stay with us and help us in our most challenging days and through His good plan and purpose all will be well. Let’s pray we might be people who live and reflect this peace before others that many more might be persuaded this year to come and put their trust in our Lord and share His blessing!
2023 – will it be a year of blessing or curse, light or darkness in your life and mine? We must choose.
I say let’s choose life and love and light in the grace and peace of God! Let’s speak it and practice it and pray it for others every day and to the God of grace and His Son the Lord Jesus be glory and honour and praise!
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