It seems that it is common for people to say,"God Bless you etc.
I do not know what that really means. I am sure it is meant in good faith, but doesn’t it imply that no one is blessed? I was taught the word blessed meant,Happy. Blessed are the poor in spirit, blessed are they who mourn etc. We do not say to a human father, who’s child has just finished a meal, feed your child.
Why do we not ask God to bless our enemies. Jesus taught, love your enemies, do good to those who would harm you,in so doing you heap coals upon his head.Does God hold back His blessings if we do not ask him? The phrase God Bless you, isn’t a prayer,because we do not say God please bless so and so.
Also, the bigger question to me is, why does God need to be TOLD to bless me or you? Doesn’t he already know we need it? This is a facet of the same problem I have with prayer in general. Attempting to influence God by repeated, fervent requests like fans at a rock concert who think if they just yell “FREE BIRD!” often and loud enough, the band will hear them and grant their request. Doesn’t the omniscient, all-loving and personal God already KNOW my dad has cancer and needs healing? Why does he need me to tell him this ten times a day?
That there is no answer to these questions constitutes the best logic I’ve encountered against the existence of a “personal” god who listens to each of us and genuinely cares whether so-and-so gets well, the dog finds his way home, or this or that team wins the Super Bowl. Obviously he’s off creating other universes someplace.
Welcome to the Straight Dope Message Boards, monavis, we’re glad to have you with us.
If you read the forum descriptions, you’ll find that this type of question most likely belongs in the Great Debates forum, and so I’m moving it there. I think you’ll get more responses there than you would in the “About this Message Board” forum. No biggie, you’ll know for next time. And, as I say, welcome!
Yes, sort of. God does do things in response to prayer that He would not do otherwise. I can’t remember who said it, but C.S. Lewis gives a quote that “God answers prayer to give His creatures the dignity of causation”. But if we don’t ask, yes, I think there are cases where God withholds His blessings.
Sounds rather callous, but the Christian belief is that there is more to “the Good” than “getting whatever we want or think we need”. The central need of humans is to be in relation to God. This is (believe it or not) more important even than things like “heal my brother of cancer” or “please stop daddy from drinking” or whatever.
I don’t think God needs to be asked, but I think we need to ask Him. It is vital that we seek to be in His will. Thus we are commanded by God to pray even for things like our daily bread and to be delivered from evil. Because it is to our benefit to ask. It also shows us that when God does things for our benefit, that we receive all good gifts from His hand and with awareness of the Giver.
I think the phrase is best understood as (I pray that) God (will) bless you, with the parts in parentheses implied. You are sort of informing the other person that you are praying that God will bless them. Think of it as a notification of a prayer already delivered rather than a prayer in itself.
It was none other than Niccolo Macchiavelli, a much more decent man than his reputation (which was founded in his being realistic about politics at a time when public pronouncements were supposed to be idealistic), who originally said the bit about God granting us the dignity of causing things to happen (through prayer and otherwise), instead of doing it all Himself.
The general idea is that, human beings being what they are, they wish to do something to help alleviate pain (emotional or physical), make things go better for others, etc. Hence God’s will, which takes into account all that He knows is happening or will happen, takes into account that A is suffering, B is praying for him, and grants relief to A as an answer to B’s prayer. Not that He might not do so otherwise, but His act is intended and conditioned on the request being made.
I used an analogy once of the summer I babysat my honorary grandchildren. Certainly I was aware of what they’d probably want to do on a hot, sunny summer day. But I waited for them to ask me to take them to the beach – which I’d planned to do anyway – so that they’d have the dignity of helping plan our day together. (There was an ulterior motive of helping train the three of them to arrive at a mutually-agreed-on decision, since there was a lot of sibling in-fighting going on, as well.) It was not that I would not have taken them if they hadn’t asked – but my doing it in response to their request gave them a sense of having been a part of the decision-making process, which is important when you’re a kid growing up.
Finally, “God bless you,” “Goddammit,” and similar phrases are relicts of an old grammatical construction, the hortatory mode, in which X is instructed or requested to do Y. It’s roughly equivalent to a “May God bless you,” or “God, please bless this person.” (Note that the indicative would be “God blesses you” and that’s not what’s being said – it’s an invocation or imprecation, not a declaration.)
I once knew a radio DJ back in the old days when it wasn’t all this Clear Channel and Infinity broadcasting crap. They would occasionally play records preceded by a phone call requesting it.
I asked him if they really took requests, and he said no, they just taped the requests, and if they were going to play a record anyway they would sometimes lead in with a taped request. It gave the listeners the illusion that someone at the station was listening.
I think it’s pretty damn deceptive, whether it’s a radio station or god.
Doesn’t that imply that I am not yet blessed? Is God waiting to bless us only if someone asks? When we say God Bless you. If sounds like we are asking god to bless himself.
Monavis
Yes, at least in the way He would if someone prayed for you. In that sense, yes, God waits. Like I said, sometimes God does not do things unless asked.
Not in any common way of understanding. We are saying “God bless you”, not “God bless Himself”.
It occurred to me, on rereading this thread, that someone might see my post as arguing with Shodan’s points in this one – and except for the minor grammatical tangent, it’s not. I think he’s painting the Straight Bill of Goods as Christianity in all its manifold variants teaches the concept of prayer here, and I decided it would be a Good Move if I quoted this post and endorsed it completely (barring the minor grammar point), taking the opportunity to say so.