"Pure and genuine religion in the sight of God the Father means caring for orphans and widows in their distress and refusing to let the world corrupt you." James 1:27

Friday, January 27, 2012

May God Bless You...with Tears and Anger, Discomfort and Foolishness


I came across this today while running around on the web.  It spoke so clearly to my heart I had to share with you all ~

May God bless you with discomfort at easy answers, half truths, and superficial relationships, so that you may live deep within your heart.


May God bless you with anger at injustice, oppression, and exploitation of people, so that you may work for justice, freedom and peace.


May God bless you with tears to shed for those who suffer from pain, rejection, starvation, and war, so that you may reach out your hand to comfort them and to turn their pain in to joy.


And may God bless you with enough foolishness to believe that you can make a difference in this world, so that you can do what others claim cannot be done. 
-Franciscan prayer

 How often do we think a blessing should look like anger or discomfort or tears?  What a perfect reminder that we are never promised an easy road, or a carefree experience here on Earth.  What we are promised is to be saved by Christ if we ask and follow through with faith, to be transformed by Him so that we can be more like Him.  We are promised to be indwelt with the Holy Spirit to guide us.  While reading this, I thought about how we always view blessings as a comfortable experience, but to be blessed like this, blessed with a heart that breaks for the things God's heart breaks for, that is truly a blessing to beg Abba for.  If we love as He has commanded, and we reach out as He has asked, and we stand up and fight when it is needed, we are truly shining His light this world.  If we never experience this kind of blessing, we may forget the orphan and the widow, we may ignore the poor and the hurting, the lost and the broken.  So tonight, I cry out to Abba please, bless me in these ways!

1 comment:

  1. This is an amazing post, in more than one way. I was just praying last night as I was falling asleep for God not to take away my broken heart for the things that break His, but to make a way for me to make a difference when the time is right. I will pray the same prayer for you. May God bless you, and thank you for a lovely and encouraging thought this evening.

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