How Can You Bless God?

One of the most enduring quotes from President John F. Kennedy is, “Ask not what your country can do for you—ask what you can do for your country.”  I believe we need to apply this not just to our country, but to our God.  So often we are consumed with how God can bless us.  If we want to have significance both now and in eternity, we need to be asking how we can bless God.  We bless God primarily with the “worship of our lives,” pouring ourselves out into others (Matthew 25:34-40, Romans 12:1, Philippians 2:17).

God’s greatest longing is for his creation to be all that he originally intended it to be—all that he planned for it to be before sin and rebellion (of both humans and angels) marred it almost beyond recognition.  He wants us to be part of fulfilling that great desire of his right now, in our corner of the world … and he wants us to be part of fulfilling it when Jesus Christ returns with his restoration team of faithful servants.  Jesus and his team (which can include us) will completely transform the whole world and cosmos into the beautiful, peaceful, kind and just place God intended from the beginning.  By having a small impact in our world now, we prepare to have a great impact in eternity.

The profound irony is that when we seek to bless God, we find ourselves completely blessed by him (Psalm 37:4).  And this is not so much because we bend his will to give us the things we want, but because, as we delight in him, he gently bends us – so that the things we want are less of the temporary treasures of this world and more of the eternal treasure of fulfillment as beings of everlasting impact and significance (just as he is).