Blessings

21 Days of Prayer and Fasting

Today's prayer focus will be on blessings. Part of my day will be spent praying for blessings for my family, friends, community around me, the nation, the world, and even my enemies. Most of these prayers will be spoken in the quiet stillness of my home. But I'll also pray blessings on those around me as I walk. Jesus blessed others during His ministry. Sometimes it was while laying hands on them. Other times, He lifted His hands toward heaven. We don't have a full account of the many times He blessed others. I imagine He also blessed others from afar and without their knowledge.

I for one have been blessed beyond my understanding. I can imagine people have prayed blessings over my life. Although I cannot possibly understand why some are blessed while others are not, I will still pray for the blessings. Perhaps blessings come in unexpected and unimaginable ways. In our current Bible study, we are studying the Beatitudes. Perhaps in my prayers for blessings, God will transform the hearts of the ones I'm praying for to be more like the hearts depicted in the Beatitudes? And perhaps He is transforming my heart in the process as well. I have found that when I pray for others, I begin to care for them more. Even my enemies. He has taught me that this is part of the process of loving the Lord with all [my] heart, soul, mind and strength. And to love others as myself.

Father God in heaven, thank you that I can come before You and humble myself. I pray for blessings for my family. I pray for blessings for my friends. I pray for blessings for the community I live in and everywhere my path takes me everyday. I pray for blessings for this nation. I pray for blessings for the entire world. And most importantly, I pray blessings for those who have mistreated and wronged my family, friends, and myself. May the world be blessed because You are blessed Lord, our God. Please bless these as You have blessed me.

Lord, please bless the church that You are calling me to join in fellowship. I do not know where this church is yet. But I know You do. I ask for blessings over that church as You prepare them and myself for the day when I first step foot into the building. Please go before me and guide me toward where this church is. Also, please bless Community United Methodist Church in Virginia Beach. Please bless Calvary Chapel Golden Springs in Diamond Bar. Please bless theChapel in Trinity. Please bless Town Center Church in Mooresville.

Finally, I pray blessings over the pastors and their families of all these churches. May all of our lives reflect the goodness of Your loving kindness in our world. The world needs more of You and less of us.

It is with gratitude, thanksgiving, and in Your Name, I pray. AMEN!

Today's scripture reading was John 2. Here we see the first of His signs when He turned water into wine. This is always where we see Him drive out the money changers from the temple. He also spoke of His death and resurrection when He told them that if they destroy this temple, He would raise it again in 3 days.

This is day 2 of this year's prayer and fasting season.

Enemies

I don't actually have any enemies. So I emphasized the word above. Who I mean by that are those who have harmed or wronged me or my loved ones. Or even the people I've heard about having wronged or harmed someone in general. The simple truth is, in God's eyes, we are all bad. Also, I'm the enemy or villain of others stories. I'm by no means an innocent person myself.

What praying for them has done for me is help soften my heart toward them. For the ones who wronged or harmed me, I've had to forgive them. That doesn't really impact them directly. Forgiveness has cleared my heart of the resentment and some of the pain. Some of the pain remains. But as I pray for them, the pain is beginning to go away as well.

This is by no means an easy thing to do. It has gotten a little easier over time. I still won't call it easy...LOL But you know what?!? Jesus prayed for His enemies too. And He asked the Father to forgive them for they know not what they do.

Blessing

The definition of blessing for the context of my prayers today is God's favor or protection.

It's easy to pray that over family, friends, and generally anyone I don't know. It is incredibly difficult to pray that over people I know did bad things. God didn't call me to be a judge. So, I'm glad this was the focus of my prayers today. It helped remind me that He is the only Judge who can weigh people's hearts.

My Day

I failed to think about what I should write about my day as it went by...LOL I suppose that's because it was mostly uneventful. But it was a swell day anyway.

You know the saying, the calm before the storm? Well, around here in west-central Florida, there is a whole lot of ruckus before the storm and then the calm comes after...HAHAHA Today, a storm blew through. Hours before the storm, the cold front coming through caused a great amount of wind. But the sky was still so beautiful. After the storm rolled through, the sky was beautiful once more and the wind was gone. The storm wasn't violent. It was just the wind and rain this time.

Work is going to be picking up this week, thankfully. Something I have been waiting on was finally completed today. So I can now begin more next steps with some of the projects. My boss was out sick today. So I had to wait for tomorrow to figure out those next steps. I pray he is resting well and will be back to himself tomorrow.

Due to doing the 21 days of prayer thing, having a Bible in a Year plan, and the Bible study, I've been doing one of each near meal times the last 2 days. It's like I'm getting my daily bread with my daily meals...LOL I don't imagine I could keep up with all of that on a regular basis. I don't have any plans this month. So, I think it works out well with my current routine. After the 21 days, I'll likely go back to my regular prayer focuses with some tweaks learned through this brief season. If I didn't have a day job, I'd be able to keep up with this pace...hehehe But I have to be a good steward of the resources God gave me...especially time and money.

My back is feeling a little better today. It still caused some issues with sleep last night. But the way it feels right now makes me think that tonight's sleep will be better. I wonder if it was the weather that rolled across the country this weekend and today? When I lived in Indiana, weather impacted my physical body all the time. It was one of the many reasons I wanted to try Florida. The climate here is much easier on people like me who are sensitive to weather. It still makes an impact. It just isn't as extreme.

HAHAHA...I just remembered...I made a silly little friendship video this morning...HAHAHA I got the idea from a social media post I saw sometime last week. I edited it to speed up a few sections and added music. It was fun and a nice little experiment in video editing. It became a warm hug, just for my deer friend ❤️

I managed to get in my 3 one mile walks today. I've also scheduled those near my meal times. It's a nice balance of time with God, exercise, and nourishment. I'd love for this to be my daily routine always. But you know...life happens...LOL

I haven't gotten back to creative writing recently. It isn't from a lack of creativity...hehehe It has mostly been a matter of time. I thought about squeezing in some time tonight. If I do, great. If I don't, great. I'm really happy with how my routine is balanced right now. I don't get everything I'd like accomplished. But I get all of the right things done...hehehe

Photo of the Day

The morning was so beautiful today. I love how these video to photo things work out. I remember how I would take a sunrise photo most mornings. Back then, I'd use the photo camera. They always turned out well. But they never really looked the way I saw it with my eyes. I would apply filters to get them close. But these new photos I make from video screenshots turn out more natural to what my eye sees. I still apply some filtering. But I love these so much better now. My creative side definitely prefers these and it inspired me to capture my year through video and photos daily. The photos are the snapshot over time. The videos are for me to look back upon and connect to the moments. Two very distinct ways to view the same moment...and I LOVE IT!!!

Wrapping Up

Today was a Blessed day. Here is a little video journal about some of the things I saw on my walks.

I decided not to do any creative writing tonight after all. My mind is tired. My body is still wide awake...hehehe