(Familycast) Thankful For Who God Says You Are And What God Lets You Do (Isaiah 61:6; 1 Cor 4:1)

This THANKSGIVING blessing for the world was written by Pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Bonhoeffer was a leader in the resistance against Hitler in World War 2. He was arrested and executed by the Nazis. He died in April of 1945, only two weeks before his prison camp was liberated by the American soldiers. He could have escaped but he said no to any shortcuts. He died with these words of hope on his lips, “this is the end-for me the beginning of life.” His many writings have blessed thousands of people. Now you get a chance to receive this Thanksgiving blessing from one of his writings. Its words will help you bless our world. He invites you to know one thing about yourself. You are God’s righteous one. Bonhoeffer says that through you, (God’s righteous one), the world will be blessed and has hope. So keep laying your righteous hands on those places where you may feel like giving up. Know that your hands are used by God to create hope and a future for this world we all love to live in. The day will come when our Heavenly Father will create a new heaven and a new world that we will live in forever with all the saints who have gone before us, like Bonhoeffer. Until then, let’s pray his blessing over our world. Here is his whole message on blessing. (The words in capital letters can be your prayer). “The world lives by the blessing of God and of the righteous and thus has a future. Blessing means laying one's hand on something and saying: DESPITE EVERYTHING, YOU BELONG TO GOD. This is what we do with the world that inflicts such suffering on us. We do not abandon it; we do not repudiate, despise or condemn it. Instead we call it back to God, we give it hope, we lay our hand on it and say: MAY GOD’S BLESSING COME UPON YOU, MAY GOD RENEW YOU; BE BLESSED, WORLD CREATED BY GOD, YOU WHO BELONG TO YOUR CREATOR AND REDEEMER.”