“Joseph is a fruitful bough, a fruitful bough by a spring; his branches run over the wall. 23 The archers bitterly attacked him, shot at him, and harassed him severely, 24 yet his bow remained unmoved; his arms were made agile by the hands of the Mighty One of Jacob (from there is the Shepherd, the Stone of Israel), 25 by the God of your father who will help you, by the Almighty who will bless you with blessings of heaven above, blessings of the deep that crouches beneath, blessings of the breasts and of the womb. 26 The blessings of your father are mighty beyond the blessings of my parents, up to the bounties of the everlasting hills. May they be on the head of Joseph, and on the brow of him who was set apart from his brothers.” (Gen. 49:22-26)
Read More“Joseph is a fruitful bough, a fruitful bough by a spring; his branches run over the wall. 23 The archers bitterly attacked him, shot at him, and harassed him severely, 24 yet his bow remained unmoved; his arms were made agile by the hands of the Mighty One of Jacob (from there is the Shepherd, the Stone of Israel), 25 by the God of your father who will help you, by the Almighty who will bless you with blessings of heaven above, blessings of the deep that crouches beneath, blessings of the breasts and of the womb. 26 The blessings of your father are mighty beyond the blessings of my parents, up to the bounties of the everlasting hills. May they be on the head of Joseph, and on the brow of him who was set apart from his brothers.” (Gen. 49:22-26)
Read MoreHere is another prayer to begin a new week: “O GOD, you are alive from eternity to eternity. You are not just at one time or in one place, because all times and places are in you. I long to understand my destiny as a child of yours. Here I stand, weak and mortal amid the immensities of nature. But blessed are you, O Lord God, for you have made me in your own likeness, and you have breathed into me the breath of your own life. Within this fragile body you have set a spirit that can relate to your own Spirit. Within this perishable being you have planted what cannot perish, and within this mortal, immortality. So from this little room and this early hour I can lift up my mind beyond all time and space to you, the uncreated One, until the light of your face illuminates my whole life.
Read MoreAnother prayer from John Baillie: “O DIVINE Love, as you stand outside the closed doors of human hearts and knock, grant me the grace to throw open all the doors of my heart. Tonight let me draw back every bold and bar that until now has robbed my life of air and light and love.
Read MoreYesterday, we reflected on the beautiful harmony between the Lord’s work in us and our “work of faith” (1 Thess. 1:3). Today, we want to focus our reflection on the Lord, the Fount of every blessing.
Read More“Joseph is a fruitful bough, a fruitful bough by a spring; his branches run over the wall. 23 The archers bitterly attacked him, shot at him, and harassed him severely, 24 yet his bow remained unmoved; his arms were made agile by the hands of the Mighty One of Jacob (from there is the Shepherd, the Stone of Israel), 25 by the God of your father who will help you, by the Almighty who will bless you with blessings of heaven above, blessings of the deep that crouches beneath, blessings of the breasts and of the womb. 26 The blessings of your father are mighty beyond the blessings of my parents, up to the bounties of the everlasting hills. May they be on the head of Joseph, and on the brow of him who was set apart from his brothers.” (Gen. 49:22-26)
Read More“Joseph is a fruitful bough, a fruitful bough by a spring; his branches run over the wall. 23 The archers bitterly attacked him, shot at him, and harassed him severely, 24 yet his bow remained unmoved; his arms were made agile by the hands of the Mighty One of Jacob (from there is the Shepherd, the Stone of Israel), 25 by the God of your father who will help you, by the Almighty who will bless you with blessings of heaven above, blessings of the deep that crouches beneath, blessings of the breasts and of the womb. 26 The blessings of your father are mighty beyond the blessings of my parents, up to the bounties of the everlasting hills. May they be on the head of Joseph, and on the brow of him who was set apart from his brothers.” (Gen. 49:22-26)
Read MoreHere is a challenging but ennobling prayer from John Baillie as we begin this week: “O LORD, you indwell our shabby human life, lifting it now and then above the dominance of animal passion and greed, allowing it to shine with borrowed lights of love and joy and peace, and making it a mirror of the beauties of a world unseen. Grant that my part in the world’s life today may not be to obscure the splendor of your presence but rather to make it more plainly visible to the eyes of my fellow men and women.
Read MoreJacob’s prayer for Asher is “Asher's food shall be rich, and he shall yield royal delicacies.” Asher was his eighth son through Zilpah, Leah’s maid. His name means “happy one”. This prayer prophesied that Asher would be blessed with a fertile portion of the land, which would yield not only basic crops in abundance but also “royal delicacies”. Asher’s inheritance was located in the farthest northwestern region of the promised land along the northern coast. Since it was on the plain, it was very likely that most of it was tillable land. We don’t have any biblical account of the richness of Asher’s soil, but John Gill refers to some ancient writers, who described it as “exceedingly fat and fruitful, and produced the most delicate wine and wheat, and might be truly called the fat valley.”
Read MoreFor Gad, Jacob prayed, “Raiders shall raid Gad, but he shall raid at their heels.” Gad was Jacob’s seventh son. He was born by Bilhah, who was Leah’s maid. When Leah saw that Rachel gave her maid, Bilhah, to Jacob and she bore Dan and Naphtali, Leah gave Jacob her maid, Zilpah, as well. Zilpah gave birth to Gad and Asher, Jacob’s seventh and eighth sons.
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