During 2025, Peachtree Church is focusing on the Book of Psalms with a series called Dwell, through which we seek to deepen our conversation with God and open ourselves to hearing his response. The practice of praying three times each day will unite the voices of our hearts and souls as we seek the day when we will see the full realization of the Kingdom of God, promised in Revelation 21:3: “…Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God.”
We will email devotionals twice weekly with Monday’s providing an overview of the Psalm as a whole, and Wednesday’s focused on that week’s Daily Dwell.
May God be gracious to us and bless us and make his face shine on us—
Psalm 67:1-2
so that your ways may be known ….
Devotional
Whenever we celebrated Thanksgiving with my father’s side of the family, my paternal grandfather, who went by “Friar” (yes, Friar Tucker), would ask that during the blessing over the meal, we go around the group of gathered people to offer thanks for the particular blessings that we had seen in our lives during the previous year. It was a nice way to do things, despite the fact that a few relatives would carry on a bit longer than those of us who were hungry would have liked. It always allowed us to center the meal in the realization that we, as a family, and truly as a larger people and world, are more blessed than we ever come to realize.
While we are still about six months away from Thanksgiving Day 2025, we each have the opportunity to stop for a moment and look at the ways that God’s face has shone upon us, not simply during the last year, but even during the last day, the last week, or the last month. If we trust that God will be gracious to us and bless us, then we should respond by offering thanksgiving for those blessings. If we trust that we will see His face shine on us, then we can prepare our hearts, our minds, and our souls for the moment when our Lord’s countenance will be upon us. A few weeks ago, I shared some thoughts about waiting as an active process, where we prepare ourselves to receive God’s answers. Whenever we ask for His blessing upon us, it is a similar process: in asking to be blessed, we must prepare for how we will receive those blessings.
Will our receipt be one that is passive, wherein we simply accept the way that God works in our lives as our due and continue on with business as normal? Is the way that we accept His blessing upon us one of rejoicing, where we truly turn all that we are to sharing with the world the awe-inspiring abundance of the Lord’s love? The reality for so many of us is somewhere in between, where some days we see the Almighty’s hand at work in our lives but all too often we simply cannot see His face shining upon us because we have grown accustomed to the way that our Creator works and the ways that He acts, which means that we do not share or show that goodness to all around us.
When I think about how we respond to God’s blessings, I often think about one of Jesus’ lesser-preached-upon parables—the Parable of the Lost Coin. This parable tells of how a woman upon finding a lost coin throws a celebration for her friends and neighbors. It is in the seemingly mundane moments of discovering a blessing that seems commonplace that the greatest celebrations can occur.
For Reflection
- While many of us pray for God to bless us, when was the last time that you acknowledged His blessing upon your life?
- How does your response to God’s blessings show those who do not know God’s presence the depths of His love for all people?
Prayer
Gracious and loving God, you shower us with good more than the dew covers the spring grass, yet we often turn a blind eye to your hand at work. Help us to acknowledge your blessings; help us to understand the good that you seek to share with all the world, and to allow your ways to be known to all people. In Jesus’ name, we pray; amen.
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Devotionals