Prayers of Blessing

Today’s reading is out of Numbers 6:22-27. Begin today’s devotion by reading this entire passage.

One of the most underused forms of prayer is a prayer of blessing. Prayers of blessing invite God’s favor and power into our life and the lives of others! We see these types of prayers recorded throughout Scripture (Psalm 121:7-8, Romans 15:5-6; 16:25-27, 2 Corinthians 13:14, Hebrews 13:20-21). Our God loves to bless us and this type of prayer is also focused on passing on God’s blessings to others. There are many great times to pray for a blessing over someone’s life. We can pray a blessing over someone’s home, ask God to bless a new couple getting married, or pray God’s best over the life of a child.

For today’s devotional, we’ll look more closely at a beautiful prayer of blessing found in Numbers 6:22-27. God asked Moses to tell his brother (and right-hand man) Aaron to pray a blessing over the Israelites. You may have heard this prayer before but we encourage you to look at it again with fresh eyes and an open heart.

We invite you to read over this passage again and seek to understand God’s heart for each of us.

Numbers 6:24-26 (NLT) 24 ‘May the Lord bless you and protect you. 25 May the Lord smile on you and be gracious to you. 26 May the Lord show you his favor and give you his peace.’

Reflect

  1. What’s your favorite phrase from this prayer? Why?
  2. What do you think it means for God to “smile on” someone?
  3. We can pray these blessing prayers for others quietly without them ever knowing it. But it can also be powerful to pray them out loud for others. What do you think could come out of doing that?
  4. What can prayers of blessing teach you, or remind you, about God?

Act

Find someone this week to pray a prayer of blessing over their lives. This could be a neighbor, co-worker, or someone who just moved into a new home in your neighborhood. Challenge yourself to pray it out loud with them and see what God does with that!

Pray

Lord, I pray your hand of blessing on [this person in my life]. Help them to see your hand at work on them, to know you more deeply, to follow you more closely. Bless them in all the ways they need it most right now. Remind them of your great power and love. Pour out so many blessings on them that they’ll be amazed and have no choice but to acknowledge you in them!
And may these blessings increase my faith and the faith of all who know them. Amen.