Reflecting on Acts 3:11-26“When God raised up his servant, he sent him first to you to bless you by turning each of you from your wicked ways.” (Acts 3:26)
When we think of blessing, we think of the gifts God has given us.
Family, health, financial success, a safe place to live… ‘I am so blessed’.
Peter refers to how God called Abraham’s family to bless all people (Genesis 12:1-3).
But then he explains what that blessing means, and it is not the above ‘blessings’.
“To bless you by turning each of you from your wicked ways.”
Sin is to act in an unloving way, the opposite of God’s command to love.
Life in this world is misery because people to not love as God intended.
Collectively we are selfish, greedy, cruel, judgmental, unfair and uncaring.
And I can sense these traits in myself as well, how sin affects me.
Our world is filled with ‘wicked ways’, and I am part of this in my own way.
God sends Jesus to show us the blessed life; God raises Jesus to restore the blessed life.
The life of blessing according to Jesus is the life of loving and blessing others.
If everyone lived this way, our world would not be a mess, but a joy for all.
Jesus is still turning us towards the way of love and blessing.
To follow Jesus is to daily turn towards loving words and actions – blessed to be a blessing!
PRAYER
Lord Jesus, we are not here to enforce goodness by controlling other peoples' morality. We are not meant to be morality police, but a people who bless others with radical gracious love. Help me to bless others like You blessed me... with patience, compassion, generosity and love.