If this is your first time to visit this site, please start with this introductory post: Captivated Hearts: Women's Encounter Server Training and then begin the devotions with Week 1, Day 1.
Week 1 Focus: To experience God's personal love and call as the very foundation for our lives.
Week 1 Prayer: That we understand that God alone, His glory and salvation, is the goal of our lives and that everything else in life is but a means to achieve that goal.
Many times in the Old Testament we read about a father blessing his children. When we think about a father "giving his blessing" in modern terms, we usually equate that with him giving his permission or agreement to something. We also talk about being "blessed" when we receive something we need or have prayed for, or when something touches our hearts. But in the Old Testament, a blessing was so much more than our contemporary understanding of the word. In the Old Testament, a blessing was a very formal event. The blessing spoken by a father indicated his favor on his child, and it often detailed the child's inheritance as well as speaking prophetically about his future. Blessings were a big deal!
Read this blessing that Isaac spoke over his son Jacob: Genesis 27:28-29, and this one that Jacob then spoke over his own son, Judah: Genesis 49:8-12.
Spend some time now considering how God has blessed you throughout your life: as an infant, a child, an adolescent, a young adult, even now. How has He shown his favor on you, what has He taught you about your inheritance?
Journal your thoughts. If you struggle to see God's blessing on your life, pray that He will reveal it to you. Offer a prayer of thanksgiving for the way He has blessed you and promises to bless you in the future.
Tomorrow: How God Sees Me (Part 1)
