Monday, November 21 – Psalm 67:1-2

God be gracious to us and bless us, and cause His face to shine upon us. That Your way may be known on the earth, your salvation among all nations.

Have you ever received a gift with a purpose behind it? Gifts don’t have to be frivolous to be valuable to us. When we have a purpose for our gifts, we often value the gift even more. The blessing in today’s passage may sound familiar as it is a benediction that has been spoken to God’s people for generations. The second part may be a little bit less familiar, though. Often, we love to receive the blessings of God and see God’s hand at work for our own benefit and pleasure. However, the psalmist paired these statements beside each other to show that God’s blessing has a deeper purpose. Our prayer for God’s blessing and graciousness is for the purpose of His way being known on earth.

It is easy to make a list of requests to God without considering our purpose in asking Him for those things. Passages like this make us pause and evaluate ourselves. Are we truly seeking the blessings of God so that His way may be known to the world? Is our desire for His salvation among the nations reflected in our everyday actions? Praise God that this is not a task we take on by ourselves. In every opportunity to share what God is doing in our lives, He equips us with the Holy Spirit, and He has given us a church community to be reminded and moved toward this purpose together.

• Have you ever shared the gospel with someone else? How does God equip us for that?
• How have you partnered with our church community to be a part of making God’s salvation known among the nations?
• Pray and ask God to remind you daily of the purpose He has called you to as a follower of Christ.