Numbers 6: 24-26, “May the Lord bless you and protect you. May the Lord smile on you and be gracious to you. May the Lord show you his favor and give you his peace.”

This is a very specific blessing given by God himself. The Lord told Moses to tell his brother, Aaron, and his sons, to speak these words over God’s people on the journey to their destiny. Words of encouragement, words of hope, words of goodness, words that would give strength to keep going.

And maybe that’s precisely what you need today. Maybe you’re here today exhausted. Maybe you are frustrated. Maybe you feel uncertain or anxious. Or maybe you’re questioning if this is as far as you can go and this is as good as it will get. Well, let me tell you what happened last night.

My husband and I left our little island in the Florida Keys on Saturday morning to begin our travels. Where are we going? Around the world … literally. And yes, we’re taking you with us. The next several months will take us to Hawaii and Bali and Italy, but first, we’re driving to Illinois to take our dog to the family that absolutely spoils him rotten for us.

We’ve been driving for 2 days, so we roll into the Nashville, Tennessee area late yesterday evening. Our accommodations for the night are a horse barn. No, legit, a horse barn. But don’t feel sorry for us, it’s one of the most beautiful things you’ve ever seen where I can sit in my King size bed and look through a massive glass wall onto the horses in their stalls below.

(And before you get all huffy thinking we’re somehow miraculously wealthy hosting this free podcast with no advertisements, I can assure you I got it for the price of your local Holiday Inn – you just gotta know how to travel right!)

So, back to the part of the evening that was 100% targeted towards you. I’m sitting in this barn bed overlooking the horse stalls, and I’m studying my Bible. This week I’m studying the Old Testament book of Numbers where the journey of the Israelites is being led by Moses. I get to chapter 6 and I read the specific blessing God gives to Moses for Aaron and his sons to speak. As I’m reading it, the Holy Spirit told me, “This is what my girls need to hear tomorrow morning. Speak these blessings over them. Tell them this is for them.”

So, my fellow daughter of the Most High, this is for me and you specifically today. Receive every word of this blessing.

May the Lord bless you and protect you.
May the Lord smile on you and be gracious to you.
May the Lord show you his favor and give you his peace.

How many times is the word “you” said in this blessing given by God? Count them. 6 times. Bless YOU, protect YOU, smile on YOU, be gracious to YOU, show YOU his favor, give YOU his peace. The Lord is being very clear this is about YOU. Yes, YOU.

He says, “Stop dismissing yourself from my blessing. Stop thinking you’re not good enough for me. Stop shrinking back as if you don’t matter. This is for YOU.”

Will you receive his blessing today?

A blessing is like a gift. It can be given, but it does nothing if it’s not opened. You’ve been living your days without opening the gift, my sister. This is FOR YOU. God himself has this for YOU.

Right now, would you humbly say, “Yes, Lord, I receive your blessing intended for me.”

I believe the enemy of your soul would love to make you all prideful and arrogant, thinking you don’t need God’s blessing. But, if he can’t do that, then the enemy of your soul will settle for making you assume you are dismissed from God’s blessing because you could never be worthy. You are neither too good for this, nor are you too bad for this. This blessing is perfectly sized and perfectly timed for precisely YOU. Receive it.

Now, let’s unwrap this blessing. Let’s understand the gift God is giving us.

Did you know this blessing is very likely the oldest poem in all of scripture? It’s survived nearly 3,500 years to be spoken over you on this very day! Divine timing by a divine God involved in every detail of your one precious life.

This is a double blessing in verse 24, then each of the blessings is elaborated on more in the next 2 verses.

Verse 24 says, “May the Lord bless you and protect you.” God blessing you is then specifically detailed in verse 25. God protecting you is specifically detailed in verse 26.

The way in which God is going to bless you is he is going to smile on you and be gracious to you. Oh my goodness, visualize that for a moment. Just imagine God looking down from Heaven and SEEING YOU. My friend, do you know God actually SEES you?

Research shows there’s one thing women most want in a relationship, they want to be seen. It’s why we often do what we do. We’re trying to be seen. Someone see me, look at me, notice me. We’re made to crave being seen. And God says, “My girl, I SEE you.” When he sees you, he smiles. Did you know your very existence makes God smile? Well of course you do, you’re his masterpiece. He handcrafted you with every loving detail and called you his most treasured work. He delights in YOU!

Zephaniah 3:17, “The Lord will take delight in you with gladness. With his love, he will calm all your fear. He will rejoice over you with joyful songs.” Again, this applies to YOU. He sees you and he delights over you. He is smiling on you.

You in your imperfections. You in your mistakes and failures. You in your never get it quite right and give up way before you should. You, just as you are. You are the object of God’s smile. And with his smile comes GRACE.

Do you understand what God’s grace is? It’s his undeserved love giving freely, without performance. You don’t earn this. You don’t make yourself good enough for this. You never could. God’s grace wins every time.

There’s a song called ‘Jireh’ with the opening lyrics that absolutely slays me every time. It says:

I’ll never be more loved than I am right now.
Wasn’t holding you up
So there’s nothing I can do to let you down
It doesn’t take a trophy
To make you proud
I’ll never be more loved than I am right now

Right there, exactly as you are, God is smiling on you with his grace. Not because you earned it. Not because of a single thing you’ve done. Simply because God has chosen in advance to cover you with the grace of his love. Ahhhh, yes, breathe that in.

When I understand the fullness of God’s grace, I drop the pressure of performance. God’s grace causes me to live totally different. I’m no longer trying to earn it, I’m just trying not to waste it. There’s a difference.

Now, God wants to protect you. Specifically, he’s protecting you by showing you his favor and giving you his peace.

God’s favor will have you winning battles you could never win on your own. God’s favor will strengthen you beyond measure, and guide you into divinely aligned details you could have never planned on your own. Do you even realize how personally involved God is in the details of your life? What did he have to do to have you here listening to this today? Really, who did he use to get you here? What connections did he align? What miraculous steps did he guide to bring you to this place where you’re listening now? His favor is all over your life.

And with his favor comes his peace. The Hebrew word spoken here for this kind of peace is ‘Shalom’. Shalom is a wholeness, a goodness, and a total satisfaction in life. God says, “I give you SHALOM.” Do you feel that? That’s wholeness that fills those empty spaces in your life. That’s goodness that seeps through the cracks and satisfies. That’s an overall sense of joy overflowing from an eternal source that never runs out.

And God’s peace floods us when it doesn’t make sense to have peace. When life is everything uncertain, but a certain disaster, there can still be peace. Peace that you don’t have to spin out of control in anxiety. Peace that somehow, someway, this is going to be okay. Peace that God sees this, God is above this, and God is holding you securely in the palm of his hand through it all. Shalom … wholeness, goodness, total satisfaction if you snuggle in close to God here.

And all of this is for YOU. Six times the Lord repeated it’s for you. He really, really, really wants YOU to receive this. God said SPEAK this blessing over my people so they KNOW they are blessed.

Do you know you are blessed? Do you know you are protected? Do you know God is smiling on you today with grace? Do you know his favor is for you and his peace is offered?

Now, the Lord says something remarkable after this specific blessing to be spoken. Verse 27, “Whenever Aaron and his sons bless the people of Israel in my name, I myself will bless them.”

These words were to be spoken as a reminder, but God himself gives the blessing. God personally and directly wants to bless you today. As his inspired messenger, I speak these words over you today, but God is the one who will bless you.

May the Lord bless you and protect you.
May the Lord smile on you and be gracious to you.
May the Lord show you his favor and give you his peace.

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