Well, Bless Your Heart!

When I was a kid, my folks did a lot of evangelizing in the south. They have some wonderful expressions that they use down there that we don’t normally use here in the Midwest. One of my favorites is “Well, Bless your heart.” This expression is heard all the time down in Mississippi, Alabama and Georgia and, depending on the way it is spoken, it can mean a multitude of things.

I was thinking the other day about what it meant to truly ‘bless’ someone’s heart. I hope and pray that my wife’s heart is blessed by my love for her. Similarly, Tammy and I try to bless the hearts of the children in our church nursery. More than anything, we want them to experience God’s love through us. We want them to know that there is something different about the church and that there is a Sanctuary from the world. But as I was praying the other day, a thought came over me: Do I bless the heart of God?

The Bible says if God were to fashion Himself after anyone on earth, it would be David. In short folks, David blessed God’s heart. He had this to say in Psalms 103

Bless the Lord, O my soul; And all that is within me, bless His holy name! 2 Bless the Lord, O my soul, And forget not all His benefits:

David talked on and on about how God had done the following things:

He healed him,

He forgave him,

He redeemed him from destruction,

He crowned his life with tenderness, kindness, mercy, and grace, and

He made him young again to the point that it restored his strength.

How incredibly refreshing! David wanted to bless God. It works both ways folks! We want God to bless us but when was the last time we made a point to deliberately bless Him? This is what true worship is. So today,Forget not all of His benefits and bless His name.

Pastor Ed Brewer