Reflection: Blessed: By Faith: Prayers and Poetry

Reflection Questions

1. Have your family’s expectations for you ever been changed by the Lord’s plans?

2. Or your expectations for another family member or close friend?

3. Which took priority in that instance: faith or anxiety? Why?

4. Looking back can you identify the spiritual inheritance you received?

Share: How does it affect your perspective on new possibilities now?

Blessed: By Faith: Prayers and Poetry

Hebrews 11: 21, “By faith, Jacob, when dying, blessed each of the sons of Joseph, ‘bowing in worship over the top of his staff.’”

Blessed

As Jacob blessed from a heart of worship, he also brought about the unexpected. He gave a blessing to two grandsons claiming them as his own from Joseph. Whatever plans Joseph had intended for these sons, Jacob changed.

He reversed the blessings of the birth order and when Joseph tried to correct him, Jacob made it clear that he was not an old man mistaking identity, but giving the Lord’s prophecy on them.  And his actions guaranteed that future generations could never reject Ephraim and Manasseh from Israel because of their Egyptian birth and family connections. They belonged to his family and were given the same privileges of all his people under God’s authority.

He built a bridge of kinship effectively erasing all barriers of country, language, status, education and wealth. He faithfully communicated God’s truth to his descendants in the one way they could not counteract or deny—blessings of inheritance.

“There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free man, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to promise.” Gal 3: 28-29

Unexpected inheritance. Undeniable future. Unshakeable faith.

Blessed.

Your thoughts,

By Faith: Prayers and Poetry

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Redemption

Isaac watched,

listened, held

the words as a deep

well’s sounding echo

resonates into silence.

Memory of cold rock

glistened knife, rough cords,

emblazoned on soul—

God’s redemption.

Cupped with trust

precious seed

invoked blessings

upon future generations.

Psalm 104:21, “The young lions roar after their prey, And seek their food from God.”

Reflection: Invoke: By Faith: 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?

Invoke: By Faith: Prayers and Poetry

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

Invoke

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.

Your thoughts,

God Could: By Faith: Prayers and Poetry

God Could

Without empiric proof

beyond common sense

denied scientific theories

grief ransacking comprehension

still Abraham knew

deep down assurance.

God could.

Relinquished his son.

Received him back.

Restored vision.

Comforts our conflict.

Psalm 104: 20, “Thou dost appoint darkness and it becomes night, In which all the beasts of the forest prowl about.”

Reflection: Restore: By Faith: Prayers and Poetry

Reflection Questions

1. What impossible decision do you need to make?

2. Where in this turmoil does your belief/unbelief meter register?

3. Where does your obstacle lie—in your heart or in your will?

4. How has the Lord restored you in the face of great loss before?

5. Why, or why not, do you consider God able this time?

Share: How has God comforted your conflict?