May God be gracious to us and bless us and make His face shine on us — so that Your ways may be known on earth, Your salvation among all nations. Psalm 67:1-2
“God promises blessing to His people because He wants them to be a blessing to the nations. Therefore we should pray for blessing on ourselves for the sake of the nations. This is not because God does not love us, or is just using us. It’s because He loves the nations and because He knows that our joy in all that God is for us increases when it expands into the lives of others. In other words, when we ask for God’s blessing on us for the sake of the nations we are also asking for our joy to be full.”
John Piper in “Let the Nations Be Glad” missions week message on 7 November 1993.
Over the last two days, I have had great meetings in Florida as part of the Pioneers Hong Kong board. Yesterday, Rick Yohn, one of my fellow board members, shared a devotional based on a message he heard years ago by John Piper. Rick challenged us to “ask for God’s blessing” for the sake of serving as conduits of blessing to the world. It was inspiring. After some digging this morning, I found the message.
Throughout the Scriptures, God makes it clear that His design for us as His people is to bless us so that can bless to the world. Psalm 67 celebrates this. If the world looks like a mess, our job is not to point fingers or complain. We are part of the solution. This Lord’s day, let’s ask God to bless us with material and spiritual blessings so that our joy is full which positions us to bless the entire world for His glory!