God be merciful to us and bless us, and cause His face to shine upon us, Selah, that Your way may be known on earth, Your salvation among the nations. Psalm 67:1-2

Being blessed is often seen as something best for self and not for the benefit of others. People hold onto their own personal blessings for their own good, not to bless others. Selfishness and pride rise to the top when things are going good and successful for most people. They begin to look down upon others, rather than passing those blessings along or showing where those blessings came from.

In this psalm, the writer asks God to be merciful and bless them and cause His face to shine upon them so that His ways and salvation may be known among the nations.

Any person who has done something wrong will seek mercy upon the one judging them. No one wants the books thrown at them in harsh judgement. Along with not desiring the harsh judgement, everyone wants to be blessed and have great favor. This is most often to just look good in the eyes of everyone else.

Believers in the church will often have this same problem with self pride. They want to look like a good Christian believer in the eyes of others in the church. Their purpose for looking good is not so that the world may know God and His ways.

God’s purpose for believers upon this earth is to make Jesus known among the nations. Jesus came to seek and save the lost and then passed that mission onto every believer so that none would be lost.

As God has mercy and blesses a person, that person must be willing to share what God has done with others, letting the whole world know of God’s great mercy and love.

God has been merciful in your own life in forgiving you of the sins you have committed against Him. He has also poured out many blessings, if you take time to see them and count all of them in your life. These things God has done is not for you to hoard them and make you look good, but so that you can show the world His mercy and way to salvation.

Each day you will have opportunities to share what God has done in your life with someone who needs to hear it. Let the whole world know.

Today I pray that you will know Jesus as your Lord and Savior; that you will know God’s mercy in your life; that you will know God’s blessings in your life; that you will tell the world of the mercy and salvation God provides; and that God’s face will shine upon you.

Picture by Tim Zankert on Unsplash