Blessings: 1 Peter: Prayers and Poetry

                Blessings 

                Beauty from the heart

                brings forth blessings

                bound in His love

                blesses all situations

                battlegrounds and healing.

                Beauty from His grace

                bears daily witness

                barriers removed

                bondage dissolved

                beginning fresh hope.

Psalm 89:15: "How blessed are the people who know the joyful sound! O Lord, they walk in the light of Thy countenance."

Faith Seeds: Prayers and Poetry

Reflection Questions

1.     What words has God given you that sound deep in your heart?

2.     Do they enable your faith now or only as a future hope? Why?

3.     What blessing from God would enable you, or does enable you, to tie present and future together as a conscious faith reality?

Share: What prayer blessing do you invoke for your family?

Faith Seeds: Prayers and Poetry

Hebrews 11:20, “By faith Isaac invoked blessings for the future on Jacob and Esau.”

Invoked is a strong word. One we might think of today in terms of a court order. One dictionary refers to it as calling upon or calling down—almost a demand upon what is possible and irrefutable.

It is a word of strength based on facts, on knowledge, on premise—a declaration.

Inner surety of completion of obligation to render a response—even without a full understanding of the consequences. For Isaac his personal preferences were overturned by God’s purpose. But that was not the heart of his request.

Instead trusting in the rightness of the authority.

Isaac claimed blessings by words of faith for his own sons, as his father Abraham had trusted God’s word for him. For the future. For a promise made by God and experienced for himself at the edge of death.

Inherited legacy that demanded intentional willingness to pass along.

Intercession for sons who still had no clear comprehension of the magnitude of the promise before them. Or their obligation to uphold it. Or the loss they faced if discarded.

Intervention to ensure they both lived under God’s rule—secure in His kingdom, protected in their ignorance and their emerging faith. He asked for God’s provision and expected a positive answer.

Imperishable words based on God’s character invoked for the present and the future.

Psalm of Worship: Psalm 82:4

“Rescue the weak and needy;

Deliver them out of the hand of the wicked.”

Leaving Egypt Behind

Scripture: Exodus 40:15, “….that they may minister as priests to Me; and their anointing shall qualify them for a perpetual priesthood throughout their generations.”

Special anointing qualifying Aaron and his family for the priesthood. A special designation by God for a tribe. Without this consecration they could not serve the Lord. This special blessing passed through the generations, not because of the worth of the men so charged, but the value of the ministry they performed. A consecrated tribe. Serving as God’s representatives to a new born nation.

“As each one has received a special gift, employ it in serving one another, as good stewards of the manifest grace of God.”

Spirit anointed gifts bestowed on each newborn believer. For the common good. For the building of the body of Christ. For spreading the gospel.

So many of us stumble along in ministry not even aware of our blessings. We lean on our talents, (also God given) on our experience, on our education, on need. And we misuse the counsel of the Holy Spirit. We focus on ways and means, instead of prayers and leads.

As the Spirit leads. If we open our hearts and minds, we can participate in anointed ministry. By making ourselves available, we may experience the excitement of using a Spirit given gift once, or for a lifetime. As the Spirit moves.

Anoint me I pray, Lord, to serve at Your call. I ask to be a clean vessel for Your Holy Spirit’s use, perpetually.

Psalm of Worship: Psalm 92:10

But Thou hast exalted my horn like that of the wild ox;

I have been anointed with fresh oil.

Leaving Egypt Behind

Scripture: Exodus: 39:43, And Moses examined all the work and behold, they had done it; just as the Lord had commanded, this they had done. So Moses blessed them.

And God.

Blessed creation when complete,

living creatures of land, sky and water.

Blessed He male and female,

created in His image.

Blessed the seventh day,

sanctified day of rest.

Blessed Noah and his sons,

gave covenant rainbow at flood’s end.

Blessed Obededom when he

sheltered the ark in his home.

Blessed the generous man,

giver of food to the poor.

Blessed those who hunger and

thirst and seek His kingdom.

Blessed the bread and multiplied it,

feeding first five, then four thousand.

Blessed the bread and the wine

of the new covenant.

Blessed the church and then gave

peace in Judea, Galilee and Samaria.

Blessed the word of God,

and it grew.

Blessed the persecuted

and the reviled and the slandered.

Blessed is the Lord

upon the throne.

And may God Almighty bless you and make you fruitful and multiply you, that you may become a company of people.

Psalm of Worship: Psalm 118:26

Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord;

We have blessed you from the house of the Lord.

Leaving Egypt Behind

Scripture: Exodus 12:41, And it came about at the end of four hundred and thirty years, to the very day, that all the hosts of the Lord went out from the land of Egypt.

Abraham was the first patriarch of Israel to whom God’s promises are recorded. God promised him a great name, blessings, a great nation, and multiplied descendants as the stars of heaven and sand on the seashore. Israel passed these promises along to each generation. They knew them to be true. God also told Abraham his descendants would be enslaved and oppressed for four hundred years.

Had Israel forgotten God’s word? Had they become so enamored of Egypt’s gods that they thought God’s prophecy a myth? The time had come. God knew the very day Israel would leave captivity. He had promised a limit, a release.

We are reminded in Ecclesiastes “There is an appointed time for everything. And there is a time for every event under heaven”: for birth, death, plant, uproot, kill, heal, tear down, build-up, mourn, dance, throw stones, gather stones, search, keep, throw away, tear apart, sew together, be silent, speak, love, hate, war, “and a time for peace.”

I need my vision prodded to look beyond the immediate. My own memories repeat time after time that You have interceded on my behalf, Lord, and brought Your limits to bear on my circumstances. Forgive me my forgetfulness.

Psalm of Worship: Psalm 69:13

But as for me, my prayer is to Thee, O Lord, at an acceptable time;

O God, in the greatness of Thy lovingkindness, Answer me with Thy saving truth.