Make Me a Blessing

Out in the highways and byways of life,
many are weary and sad;
Carry the sunshine where darkness is rife
making the sorrowing glad.

Chorus:
Make me a blessing, Make me a blessing,
Out of my life, May Jesus shine;
Make me a blessing, O savior, I pray,
Make me a blessing to someone today.

Tell the sweet story of Christ and His love;
Tell of His pow’r to forgive;
Others will trust Him if only you prove
true ev’ry moment you live.

Give as ’twas given to you in your need;
Love as the Master loved you;
Be to the helpless a helper indeed;
Unto your mission be true.”

I really like the practical nature of this hymn.  The verses of the hymn outline three simple ways for us to be a blessing and all are built on great Biblical truths:

• Do – “Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify you Father in Heaven.”  Matthew 5:16

• Tell – Jesus said in Mark 16:15 “Go into all the world and preach the good news to all creation.”  What is that Good news? Jesus loves them.  Jesus died for them and will forgive them.

• Love – “To love him with all your heart, with all your understanding and with all your strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself is more important than all burnt offerings and sacrifices.” Mark 12:33.  I like the phrase in the 3rd verse of this hymn that says “Love as the Master loved you.”  How did Jesus love us?  Sacrificially – He gave His life for us.  Unconditionally – He loved us while we were yet sinners.  In that same way, we ought to love others. 

There are also different kinds of prayers we can pray for God’s blessing.  Those include:

• “Bless Me” – The Prayer of Jabez would fall into this category.  In 1 Chronicles 4:10, Jabez prays “Oh that you would bless me and enlarge my territory.”  The Bible says that God granted Jabez’s request, and I do believe that God is looking for opportunities to bless each of us personally.

• “Bless Us” – Psalm 67:1 says “May God be gracious to us and bless us and make his face shine upon us.”  The prayers “Bless our country” and “Bless our family” would fall into this category.  Once again, I believe God answers these prayers.  We can all testify of how God has blessed our lives and our families in so many ways.

• “Use me to be a Blessing” – In my opinion, this may be the hardest of the three to pray for.  We aren’t asking God to bless us first, and then bless others.  We are asking God to use us to be a blessing whether or not we are blessed.  I don’t know about you, but it is hard to have the right mindset when it seems that others are being blessed through me, and I am not being blessed.  But the reality is that we are being blessed if God is using us to bless others.  What a compliment for it to be said we have been “used of God.”   All of us that have children do receive our own blessing by blessing them.  The same is true for when God uses us in a small or big way to impact the life of another person.  We should be blessed to have that privilege.

Finally, there is a series on MTV (I know, I shouldn’t be using MTV as a reference in the Hymn of the Week, but hang with me).  The series is called “Made” and is about high school kids that want to be “made” into something they are not.  For example, a quiet kid who wants to be the lead actor in the school play.  The shy girl who wants to be on the dance team.  The “Brainiac” kid who wants to make the football team.  You get the picture.  These kids make a commitment to completely change their lifestyle for a short period of time in an effort to achieve this goal.  They want to be “Made.”  The question for us is, are we willing to do what it takes to be “made” – made into something that God can use to bless others?  Are we willing to be molded like clay into something that God can use (even if it is not the exact ministry that we had planned for ourselves)?  Isaiah 45:9 says “Does the clay say to the potter, ‘What are you making?'”  The answer to that is clearly no.  We make ourselves available for His service so that we can be a blessing, and we leave it up to Him to decide how we are used.  God may use us in a big, public way, or a quiet, behind-the-scenes way, but no matter how we are used, the tasks are important because God is the one using us.  Do you want to be “Made” – made into a blessing?  I hope that is your prayer because God will definitely answer that prayer, and I hope that you can sing this hymn with that kind of mindset.