Showing posts with label prayers from Genesis. Show all posts
Showing posts with label prayers from Genesis. Show all posts

October 18, 2019

The blessing of Melchizedek - a blessing also for you!


In collecting prayers for the Book of Bible Prayers, I focused on actual prayers prayed by real people who lived in Bible times – people who pleaded, whined, praised, asked, expressed thanks, cried real tears, complained to God, and interceded for others – just as we do today!

According to early chapters of Genesis, people began to call on the Lord a couple of generations after Adam and Eve, but (maybe because they couldn’t write yet!) we don’t know what the actual words were. (Probably, “God, help!") Those references to prayer have generally been omitted, and so have most of the many, many blessings that laud God but don’t talk directly with or to the Lord.

A few blessed exceptions have been paraphrased as blessings that speak to God rather than about Him (for example, the high priestly prayer of Aaron.) However, in the case of Melchizedek, the king-priest’s words to Abraham remain as the first recorded blessing, appropriately beginning the Book of Bible Prayers.


Genesis 14:19-20 – the blessing of Melchizedek

May you be blessed by God most High,
maker of heaven and earth.

May you be blessed by God most High,
Who has delivered you from the hands
of those who wish you harm.


Prayerfully paraphrased by Mary Harwell Sayler, ©2019, for the Book of Bible Prayers – a single volume for you to pray with “prayer partners” among God’s people, regardless of the hour, day, or year! If the book blesses you, please say so in an Amazon review. If not, please write me personally and tell me! Either way, thank you. God bless.





In the Amen of Jesus

  2 Corinthians 1:20 – “In Christ, every promise of God finds its ‘Yes!’ And also through Him is our ‘Amen!’ for the glory of God through us...