“The Invitation: Why God Welcomes You As You Are Series: Ask Me for a Blessing (You Know You Need One)” – Week 1 Scriptures: Matthew 7:1–12 (CEB), Psalm 84 (CEB)
A New Series on Blessing
We’re beginning something new at New Springs this week—a three-part series inspired by Adrian Dannhauser’s book Ask Me for a Blessing (You Know You Need One).
It’s a bold title. It assumes you need something (and let’s be honest, most of us do) and it assumes that asking for help might be one of the most faithful, human, God-soaked things you can do.
This series follows three movements:
The Invitation – realizing God wants to meet you where you are.
The Gift – recognizing what God is actually offering.
The Call – living as people who are blessed in the world.
Today we begin with The Invitation—the simple but life-changing truth that God welcomes us as we are.
Blessings Begin Where We Are
Psalm 84 opens with deep longing:
“How lovely is your dwelling place, Lord of heavenly forces!
My very being longs, even yearns, for the Lord’s courtyards.
My heart and my body will rejoice out loud to the living God!”
This isn’t the longing of a tourist—it’s homesickness. The writer’s whole body aches to be in God’s presence.
That’s what blessing is about. It’s not a transaction, it’s not about being “good enough.” Blessing is God saying: “You belong here. Right now. As you are.”
Pastor Adrian Dannhauser lives this out by standing on the steps of her church in Manhattan offering blessings to strangers. She doesn’t ask, “Do you deserve this?” She simply asks, “Would you like a blessing?”
And God is the same way—always ready, always open, always inviting.
👉 Reflection: When have you felt truly welcomed—not because of what you offered, but simply because you were you?
The Hard Part About Asking
In Matthew 7, Jesus says:
“Ask, and you will receive. Search, and you will find. Knock, and the door will be opened to you.”
It sounds simple. But asking is hard. Asking means admitting you have a need. And in our culture—especially in churches trying to “hold it all together”—we’ve been trained to fake “fine” until it looks believable.
But blessing is never about performance. It’s not about earning a spiritual gold star. It’s about relationship. God longs to give us what we truly need—courage, healing, forgiveness, hope, or simply the reminder that we’re not alone.
👉 Reflection: What keeps you from asking God—or even a trusted friend—for what you really need?
The Invitation is For Everyone
Here’s the radical thing about God’s kingdom: everyone is invited.
Human invitations usually go to people who make us comfortable—people who look like us, think like us, believe like us. But God’s invitation stretches wider. It reaches the people we judge, the people we avoid, even the ones we’d rather keep out.
That’s why Jesus begins Matthew 7 with:
“Don’t judge, so that you won’t be judged.”
It’s not just about politeness—it’s about tearing down the barriers we build to keep others out of God’s presence. If God is offering blessings freely, who are we to ration them?
👉 Reflection: If you really believed God had already invited everyone you know into blessing, how would that change the way you treat them?
Closing: Receive and Offer a Blessing This Week
Here’s the good news: The Invitation is on the table—not because you earned it, but because God is ridiculously in love with you.
This week, I invite you to practice two simple things:
Receive a blessing. From God. From someone you trust. Even from a stranger.
Offer a blessing. And mean it. Speak life, encouragement, and grace into someone’s day.
Because blessings multiply when shared. And the more we give and receive them, the more we realize: we’ve been standing in God’s dwelling place all along.
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