Page 144 - EMCAPP-Journal No. 8

Foundational Discussions in Christian Psychology
We are concerned solely with asking God to
bless other people and places around us. It is in
essence a prayer to God asking Him to bless the
object of our prayer.
Who can ask God’s blessing on others and
when and where?
We have seen in section 2 (the priesthood of the
believer) that every believer can do this. Child-
ren can do this from the moment they have ac-
cepted Jesus as their Lord and Saviour, because
then they are believers.
The blessing can be asked at any time of the day
or night in any place whether one sees the ob-
ject of the blessing or not.
What is the format and mode of the prayer for
blessing?
In its simplest form the format of the prayer is:
“Lord, I pray that You will bless OBJECT OF
PRAYER. In the Name of Jesus. Amen.” For ex-
ample, “Lord, I pray that You will bless the man
walking there across the street. In the Name of
Jesus. Amen.”
Due to the fact that a believer will pray this pray-
er in the streets, classrooms, shops and mee- sing” might be a too abstract concept at that
tings, we recommend that the prayer is done si-
lently and with open eyes. It allows any believer
to do the prayer at any time during the day in
any place. When one is alone or with another
believer it is good to pray to together.
We do not advocate that the prayer is done out
loud to not-yet-believers (more training would
be necessary and all people might not initially
have the gift of boldness to do this.) In any event
such a move does not necessarily strengthen the
prayer, indeed, it shifts the action towards direct
evangelism.
Expanding the prayer of blessing
The prayer of blessing can be expanded if there
is time. The believer can use his/her own words
or use three guidelines:
Firstly, use the main priestly blessing as origi-
nally given by God to the priests in Numbers
6:24-26 (NKJV):
143
“The LORD bless you and keep you;
25The LORD make His face shine upon you,
And be gracious to you;
26The LORD lift up His countenance upon
you,
And give you peace.” ’
Secondly, If there is time, expand the prayer of
blessing to other areas of the person’s life (Note
the BLESS acronym for easy remembrance):
• Body – health, protection, strength
• Labour – work, income, security
• Emotions – joy, peace, hope, love
• Social relationships – marriage, family re-
lationships, friends, neighbours, colleagues
• Spiritual relationship – salvation, faith,
grace, mercy, spiritual growth, forgiveness
of sin (Neh. 1:6-9)
Thirdly, the pray-er might pray for the Lord’s
love or peace to be on someone instead of bles-
sing. In the Bible these two words are often used
as synonyms of God’s blessing. Especially when
training young children (pre-school or junior
primary) to pray the prayer of blessing it is bet-
ter to start with love and then peace as “bles-
stage of the child’s development.
The objects of the prayer of blessing
The objects of the prayer of blessing are people
and places. People may be believers or not-yet-
believers and many times daily we will not even
know to which category people belong. It may
be strangers that you see walking or driving or
in a mass transit vehicle with you.
It may also be people you know or do not know
in your study, work or shopping place. It can in-
clude family and friends if you are not already
praying for them.
The places we pray for can be countries, cities
(Jeremiah 29:7 NKJV), suburbs or sub-divi-
sions, workplaces, schools or universities, go-
vernment offices or healthcare facilities. When
we pray the blessing of God on an organisation
we can include all those in authority, the em-
ployees, the clients, suppliers and directors.