Benedictions of Hope

By Dean Collins

When will it be over? No, I am not talking about the election, but then again, I am sure we all are ready for that to be over as well! 

I bet I am not alone in my confession, but I am going to come clean. When I was growing up, my family never missed a church service. Every Sunday morning, we went to Sunday school, followed by the morning worship service. If there were any meetings after church, we were there. Every Sunday night, we came back for youth activities, followed by the Sunday evening service. Anyone remember those? And we were back on Wednesday evening for bible study and prayer.

 Back in the old days, there was an order of service printed and passed out at every service. As soon as I could read the bulletin, I noticed a word at the end of the page: Benediction. I don’t think I looked the word up, but I knew as soon as we had the benediction that the service was over and it was time to move around, which meant I could talk to my friends and run around the building. Well actually, we weren't allowed to run around, but the parents would get busy talking so they couldn’t keep up with everything. I thought playing hide and seek in the church building was the reward for sitting through church!

Eventually, as I grew older and developed my own faith, I was more patient with getting to the benediction. Though sometimes, the pastor must not have worked hard enough on his sermon, so it took him a long time to get to his main point if he had one. On those days, I was eager for the benediction. 

As a more mature believer, I now appreciate and value the benediction in a church service. Often the person offering the benediction uses passages of scripture that were written as benedictions, meaning they were to invoke the blessings of God upon those who read or heard them.

Many times, we find benedictions at the end of certain books of the Bible and at a significant inflection point in the biblical story. I just finished reading Hebrews followed by the small epistle called Jude. Each of these benedictions are both powerful and encouraging. 

Here is the benediction from Hebrews 13:20-21:

“Now may the God of peace who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep, by the blood of the eternal covenant, equip you with everything good that you may do his will, working in us that which is pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.”

Try and absorb this powerful blessing of God over you as you read these two verses. The words petition God to act now. The writer of Hebrews, who knows well the suffering and struggle of believers during a time of increased persecution, asked that God, who raised Jesus from the dead and is the shepherd of his sheep, act now by establishing his peace in our lives and equip us with everything that is good so that we could accomplish his will.

I don’t know about you, but I would like to experience God’s peace now, wouldn’t you? I want God’s resurrection power to be active and at work in my life as the Holy Spirit equips me with everything necessary to accomplish God’s will in my life. 

Jude’s benediction is one of my favorites because it reminds me that God can and will keep me from stumbling and falling flat on my face as I try to do the work God has called me to do. But even more, to be reminded that because of Jesus we are presented blameless before God is truly amazing. All of us are flawed and make mistakes daily, but to know that Jesus has cleansed us from sin so that we can be in God’s presence and used by him in ministry is truly humbling.

Whether you read this at the beginning of the day or at its end, and regardless of whatever happens in the election, we can take comfort and have confidence that these benedictions are true, powerful, and active and will lead us to the throne of God and through every difficulty that lies ahead.

I can pray no better prayer for you than to leave you with these words from Jude 1:24-25.

“Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy, to the only God, our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen.”

Your Time with God’s Word
Hebrews 13:20-21; Jude 1:24-25 ESV

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