May the Lord bless ... me?!

As I faced another day of forcing myself out of the house and into the cold in the morning, I suddenly felt desparate for prayer. I started thinking about calling someone to ask for ... what? I didn't exactly know. I just knew that I've been thinking lately about wanting to be desparate for prayer, and now I was actually feeling desparate for prayer.

But I didn't make any calls. I thought about a book I had started reading last night, with a scripture reference that I had meant to look up but didn't at the time. The author mentioned she had preached a sermon in seminary on Numbers 6:22-27. I had wondered what a seminary student would find in Numbers to preach on in class?!

So this morning I looked it up. It's a blessing I am familiar with:

"The LORD bless you
and keep you;

the LORD make his face shine upon you
and be gracious to you;

the LORD turn his face toward you
and give you peace."

And I started praying it for myself, with some desparation, because I realized this is what my heart was longing for: May the Lord bless me ... May his face shine upon me ... and give me peace...

A selfish prayer? Try praying it for yourself and you'll find out.

-Candice