Words are powerful because they so often come true. God told Abraham as he called him to a life of obedience that he would make him a blessing. God’s words always come true. He blessed Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Ephraim, and Manasseh. In Genesis, we watch God’s promise come true through the fifth generation.
Blessings are still contagious. When Jacob (who had been blessed by Isaac who had been blessed by Abraham who had been blessed by God) was saying goodbye to his family, he blessed them one by one. Notice he blessed them in the name of the Lord. Not only had God blessed his fathers, who walked faithfully with him, but God had been Jacob’s shepherd his whole life right up to that moment. The Lord had delivered him from harm and so, in the name of this gracious God, he called down blessings of connection to generational grace and great increase.
Our reservoir for blessing our families and friends flows from the faithfulness of God in our own lives. We may pray scripture over our children to bless them. Who in your family before you pointed you to God and prayed for you? My mom blessed me by introducing me to a personal relationship with Jesus. These days, my dad tells me he prays for my kids and me. This is inestimably powerful to me! Think of all that God has done for you and ask him to do that for your children and others in your sphere of influence. Ask God to put his name on them today. Ask God to bless them with grace and great increase. You will not write a check that God can not cash in their lives. God is limitless and powerful. So, when we ask spiritual blessings for our kids and others, we should go big!
These verses remind me of the words John Claypool wrote as a blessing: “We depart now in the fellowship of the Father and as we go, we remember these things: by the goodness of God we were born into this world; by the grace of God we have been kept all the day long even to this hour; by the love of God fully revealed in the face of Jesus Christ, we are being redeemed.”
