"Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me."

                                                            Psalm 103:1

How in the world can us mere mortals bless God?

We’re always talking about His blessings to us, but how could we ever hope to return the favor? God has everything He needs. He made everything so what could possibly give Him? In what way can we bless God?

The easiest way to understand this is to remember that God’s ways are not our ways. Therefore we need to let go of our human and worldly way of understanding blessing (material things and health) and see it from God’s perspective.

First, we need to remember all that He has done for us. That blesses God, to know that we are thinking about Him.

Next is being thankful for all that He has done for us. With God, it’s about gratitude, not gifts.

Then there’s forgiving. That’s a biggie, considering we’re told by Jesus that we’re only forgiven to the extent that we forgive others. There was a lady named Marghanita Laski who was a secular humanist. (That’s someone who believes that humanity is capable of finding morality and self-fulfillment without believing in God.)  Not long before she died, Laski said, “What I envy most about you Christians is forgiveness. I have nobody to forgive me!” There was someone waiting to forgive her; already had.. She just wouldn’t reach out and receive it.

And finally, there’s loving. If God is love, what better way to bless Him than to love Him and love others? I’ve always heard that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. So, why not shoot for the stars and imitate Jesus. What a blessing that would be to God.

There’s one piece of this scripture that sums it all up for me. David says “Bless the Lord, O my soul.” It’s more than merely about words, folks. If you’re going to bless God, it has to come not only from your lips, but from your heart and your soul. Blessing God with the mouth but without the heart and soul is hypocrisy. Jesus even said, “These people honor me with their lips, but their heart is far from me.”

What say that instead of looking for a blessing from God today, be a blessing to God. Bless Him and His Holy Name with all that is within you.

"Praise God from whom all blessings flow. Praise Him all creatures here below. Praise Him above ye Heavenly Host, Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. AMEN."

Christmas Bonus:

“Jingle Bells”, written in the mid-1850’s, was originally entitled, “One Horse Open Sleigh” and was written as a song to celebrate Thanksgiving. None of the original lyrics mentioned Christmas.