Matthew 26:26 And as they were eating, Jesus took bread, and blessed it, and brake it, and gave it to the disciples, and said, Take, eat; this is my body.

We say a blessing before each meal. Why? We say “bless you” or “God bless” when a person sneezes. Why? “Well bless your little ol’ heart.” What does that mean? There are many ways we use the word bless and blessing to express intended good will and even sarcasm. Do any of those expressions bless the Lord?

I dare say when we take communion we think about the sacrifice the Lord made for us, the body given and the blood shed for us. Do we think about the blessing Jesus bestowed on the bread before giving us the bread of life?

John 6:35 And Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst.

Just as God blessed His creation, Jesus blesses His followers by yielding to their needs. He did so without being asked.

Bless the Lord has to be in yielding to His needs and those needs He expressed where the same as the Father in creation, to love and be loved. Jesus is gathering to Himself a bride to love and that loves Him. Our part to bless the Lord is to meet His need.

Preach the gospel, make disciples and love one another.

Our ability to do that is because Jesus blessed the bread and we took and ate of the bread by faith.

Galatians 2:20 I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.

Genesis 1:27-29 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them. And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth. And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat.

Yesterday I ended that devotional with “Bless the Lord.” It occurred to me later that we might not understand exactly how we can bless the Lord. I thought it best to search out the meaning and see what His Word has to say about it.

According to the Gesenius’ Hebrew-Chaldee Lexicon one Hebrew word bless is barak and is defined as bending the knee. It is not the only word used to express blessings but holds the key ideas required to understand how God blessed His creation and how we might bless God.

The classic thought of bending the knee is being in subjection to, recognizing a higher authority and being willing to obey that authorities commands. If you think about it strictly in those terms it does not satisfy God’s blessings upon His creation.

Think of it rather as yielding to the needs of another. When God created life He recognized that life would require a place, sustenance, and purpose. He bless His creation by yielding to the needs of His creation. None one was there to ask God for this blessing, it was God’s intended design and purpose to meet His own need, to love and be loved.