| “Through the blessing of the upright a city is exalted.” |
| —Proverbs 11:11 |
Has God blessed you? Consider this. If God has blessed you, He has also blessed those around you.
How many close calls have you experienced on the road? Did you ever stop to think that when God spared you, He spared others as well?
Speaking to His followers in Matthew 5:13, Jesus tells us that:
“You are the salt of the earth.”
As “Christ’s-ones,” we not only help to give flavor and delight to the world, our very presence helps preserve it!
We need go no further than the scriptures to see illustrations of this blessed phenomenon.
In Genesis 37 and chapters following, we read the story of Joseph, the favorite son of the patriarch Jacob. We read about his jealous brothers who sold him to a band of Ishmaelites who took him to Egypt where he became a slave under the Pharaoh’s rule. He assigned Joseph to Potiphar, the captain of the guard, putting him in charge of all he had.
Genesis 39:5 tells us:
From the time he put him in charge of his household and of all that he owned, the Lord blessed the household of the Egyptian because of Joseph. The blessing of the Lord was on everything Potiphar had, both in the house and in the field.
If we look at the New Testament, we read the story of Paul’s voyage to Rome, and the storm in which they lost the ship on which they sailed. In Acts 27:23-24 we read from Paul’s testimony:
Last night an angel of the God whose I am and whom I serve stood beside me and said, ‘Do not be afraid, Paul. You must stand trial before Caesar; and God has graciously given you the lives of all who sail with you.’
Like salt prudently used, our presence, and God’s blessing on us, may not call attention to itself. People around us may not even perceive that, because of us, God has included them in His goodness. Yet, when God removes His blessing, the world wonders what went wrong. We as a culture, too often presume things will go well for us, and believe they should. God has favored us. He has ambassadors of His grace all around, including you and me.
We must thank God today that He has called us to operate in our culture as a preserving influence, as a blessing, and as a flavoring agent to scatter His good grace to others around us. When we ask for His blessing, we must also remember to include all of those whom we will influence today.
