A family changed dramatically when the parents started blessing their children rather than criticizing them.
Kerry Kirkwood, author of The Power of Blessing, says the parents were at their wits' end because their teenaged children were rebelling "and their family was on the verge of falling apart".
They had told counsellors how bad their children were but saw no change in the behaviour of their offspring.
Then, they heard about blessing and they took a different approach.
"They began to replace angry words and expressions of disappointment with words of love and blessing - a difficult transition," Kirkwood says.
The family was transformed as attitudes changed, the children's schoolwork improved and "peace came to their house". In fact, the children wrote their parents a letter expressing love for their father and mother.
A godly blessing is a form of prayer. For instance, if we know someone is struggling with fear, we can pray something like: "May you know in your heart that God is with you and that he loves you. May he give you his strength and wisdom as you face your problem. May he fill you with his joy and peace."
We pray the blessing based on what we know about God's character and what he wants for his people, springing from what we read in the scriptures.
Blessings are important to God. Jesus spoke a series of blessings called "the beatitudes" in his great sermon in Matthew 5. He even urges us to bless those who persecute us.
The story of Balaam in Numbers 22-24 shows that there is power spiritually in speaking blessings and curses.
Balak, king of Moab, tries to get Balaam, a noted prophet, to call down a curse on the Israelites who are pouring into the region as they escape Egypt. Balak believes that a curse by the prophet will stop the Israelites and force them out.
But God stops Balaam from pronouncing a curse, saying that he has already blessed the Israelites. In the end, Balaam bows before God and pronounces a blessing - not a curse - over the Israelites.
In our world, we may be unconsciously saying hurtful things about people, not realizing that there is a spiritual aspect to our words. If we bless people, we can break the spiritual effect of negative words.
"Blessing is prophetic because it is able to see the way things should be, not the way they appear at the moment," says Kirkwood.
For me, that is an important insight.
So, when I feel upset with someone, I must remember that God loves that person and wants the best for him or her.
God is asking me to offer a blessing, drawing on what God wants for his children.
If you are interested in more on blessing, Bill Gothard's Institute of Basic Life Principles gives helpful suggestions at https://iblp.org/questions/what-power-spoken-blessing.
Kerry Kirkwood, author of The Power of Blessing, says the parents were at their wits' end because their teenaged children were rebelling "and their family was on the verge of falling apart".
They had told counsellors how bad their children were but saw no change in the behaviour of their offspring.
Then, they heard about blessing and they took a different approach.
"They began to replace angry words and expressions of disappointment with words of love and blessing - a difficult transition," Kirkwood says.
The family was transformed as attitudes changed, the children's schoolwork improved and "peace came to their house". In fact, the children wrote their parents a letter expressing love for their father and mother.
A godly blessing is a form of prayer. For instance, if we know someone is struggling with fear, we can pray something like: "May you know in your heart that God is with you and that he loves you. May he give you his strength and wisdom as you face your problem. May he fill you with his joy and peace."
We pray the blessing based on what we know about God's character and what he wants for his people, springing from what we read in the scriptures.
Blessings are important to God. Jesus spoke a series of blessings called "the beatitudes" in his great sermon in Matthew 5. He even urges us to bless those who persecute us.
The story of Balaam in Numbers 22-24 shows that there is power spiritually in speaking blessings and curses.
Balak, king of Moab, tries to get Balaam, a noted prophet, to call down a curse on the Israelites who are pouring into the region as they escape Egypt. Balak believes that a curse by the prophet will stop the Israelites and force them out.
But God stops Balaam from pronouncing a curse, saying that he has already blessed the Israelites. In the end, Balaam bows before God and pronounces a blessing - not a curse - over the Israelites.
In our world, we may be unconsciously saying hurtful things about people, not realizing that there is a spiritual aspect to our words. If we bless people, we can break the spiritual effect of negative words.
"Blessing is prophetic because it is able to see the way things should be, not the way they appear at the moment," says Kirkwood.
For me, that is an important insight.
So, when I feel upset with someone, I must remember that God loves that person and wants the best for him or her.
God is asking me to offer a blessing, drawing on what God wants for his children.
If you are interested in more on blessing, Bill Gothard's Institute of Basic Life Principles gives helpful suggestions at https://iblp.org/questions/what-power-spoken-blessing.
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