Blessing the Father By Faith

A blessing is a gift. When a person is blessed by God, they become a blessing to God and to others. You are blessed in order to be a blessing. Psalm 103 begins with this powerful personal command, “Bless the LORD, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless his holy name!” But God is the source of all blessings, so how could a person bless Him? Answer: By faith.

In Hebrews there is a whole chapter, chapter 11, devoted to faith. It is definitive in understanding what pleases God. Hebrews 11:2, says by faith, “…the people of old received their commendation.” The word “commendation” is the Greek word martureow. We get our English word “martyr” from that Greek word. It was a legal term for a person in a courtroom setting that had actually seen, heard, or experienced something. They were called a witness. As a witness, they bore witness, telling what they had seen, heard, or personally experienced. We also call this a personal testimony. This is not something you have heard that someone else heard, or even your understanding of an event, but the actual truth of the experience.

In Hebrews 11:2 God says that by faith the people of the Old Testament received a testimony. The verb, martureow, is in the passive tense, which means that these people were given something by God. He commended, gave a testimony that He had seen, heard, and experienced something with them, their faith! Faith pleases God. He can see faith. He can hear faith. He experiences faith, your faith, and it pleases Him. He talks about it.

This also means that the people of old saw and heard and experienced God’s commendation of them, His approval, which became their testimony. Being blessed by God (passive), they became a blessing to God (active) as they spoke and acted upon what they had heard from God’s testimony of them. And this pleases the Father because it begins with Him and His word of testimony of you. When He sees, hears, or experiences faith in His word from you, it blesses Him.

Today, memorize Psalm 103:1 – 2, “Bless the LORD, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless his holy name. Bless the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits,”. Meditate on the commendation you have received from the Father, that He gave His only Son, Jesus Christ, for you. As you do, you will bless Him, which is what it means to worship the Father in spirit and truth.