When you pray for others, God invites you on a journey into the wonder of what He alone can do. God has a desire to bless you and to bless others through you. It’s His way of reaching the world. He works through your prayers to penetrate hearts to experience the Good News of Christ.
Jesus taught:
Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength. The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself. There is no commandment greater than these. (NIV)
A neighbor is more than someone who lives on your street or in your apartment complex. A neighbor is anyone who is nearby. Someone you meet along your life journey that needs your help – family member, friend, co-worker, classmate, etc.
God’s Promise and Charge to Bless
Genesis 12:1-3 NIV
The LORD had said to Abram, “Go from your country, your people and your father’s household to the land I will show you.
“I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you;
I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing.
I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse;
and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.”
Five Areas of Blessing
I’m indebted to Alvin VanderGriend and his book, Be Jesus in Your Neighborhood, in which he uses the word BLESS as an acrostic to outline general areas where people need God’s blessing and which also can be used as a framework for praying for others.
Below is an outline adapted from Dr. VanderGriend’s work.
B – Body
Physical well-being: health, protection, strength, physical needs
L – Labor
Financial security: work, income, safety
E – Emotion
Emotional health: joy, peace, hope
S – Social
Relational well-being: love, marriage, family, friends
S – Spiritual
Spiritual wholeness: that those do not know Christ will sense their need for Him and find Him as the Way, the Truth, and the Life and that those who do know Christ will be strengthened in their walk with Him; faith, grace, hope, salvation
Using this simple, easy-to-use acrostic will bring about transformation in your life and in the lives of those for whom you are praying. As you begin praying prayers of blessing for your neighbors, God will expand your love for them and provide ways for you to demonstrate and declare that love.
“In Jesus, we see a prayer-care-action pattern that is meant to be followed as we reach out to our neighbors and friends. We begin by praying. Then caring follows as love for them wells up in our hearts. And then we are motivated to act in some way on our neighbors’ behalf.”
How will you use the BLESS acrostic on your everyday journey?