In Blessing I have Blessed You

God bless you. I am blessed. Bless me Lord, please bless me.

I have no idea how many times I used the word, ‘bless’ in its various forms last year. But I know that this year, 2013 I have asked the Lord to bless me quite a few times already. In some cases it was merely an extension of the requests I made late last year- which were yet to be manifested. In other cases I had accepted that last year had ended, but needed Him to bless me afresh for this year. And He did. But not in the way I was expecting.

Last Sunday the scales were removed from my eyes. I have practically been living in an oasis of blessings Besides the very obvious- I’m alive, I’m healthy, fed and clothed,  God showed me the wealth of blessings I had ignored. Here’s how it was all revealed.

The first big reveal came while I was going through my journal, collating the lessons learned in 2012. I saw that I had endured and overcome so much. It was good to read how many of my fears were alleviated, God came through for me- often in the last hour- but He always did. Of all the challenges I went through, there wasn’t a single one without a lesson. I also found out how in a few cases the same lesson was being taught, simply because I didn’t learn them the first time or I just didn’t get it. I cried, I laughed I giggled, I praised.

I came across promises He made me. I read about some very profound dreams I had. Considering the fact that my dreams rarely mean much, they tend to be scattered and inane. But this year I had about 4 dreams that were clear-cut, God speaking to me. Reading about these and the interpretation that the Holy Spirit gave warmed my spirit, gave me renewed hope. I was moved with emotion that the Lord actually speaks to me and I was reminded of Jeremiah 29:11, I know the plans that I have for you; plans that are good and to give you a hope and a future. Even though the financial breakthrough I had been seeking had not yet materialised, God told me my future was in no way jeopardised by the lack of funds. Even though in order to move forward with the present project, I needed money, the Lord assured me that the life of the project was intact.

Next I came across some prophecies I had received last year. Again I’m not very charismatic and it’s only the 2nd or 3rd time I have received a very specific word- that I believed. To be frank I can I bit of a sceptic with regards to words or prophecies. I read and prayed over these words as I believed them to be true. About an hour later I got an email from a friend giving me a word that was exactly in line with one of the prophecies. That was profound and I was truly blessed.

One of the words I got had to do with a spirit of boldness. I have been inundated with situations that tempted me to cop out of exercising boldness. I tend to shrink from confrontations but in life there are times we do need to address and confront people. So I was blessed as I realised the spirit of God had no plans of leaving me unfinished. He makes sure that the good work He started in us will be faithfully completed by Him.

Later in the week while scrolling through my inbox in search of my friend’s phone number- she moved to Canada a few years ago, I needed to call to wish her a happy birthday. I came across some emails she had sent me during the course of 2012 and boy was I blessed! She has been speaking words of life and encouragement consistently into my life. Her old emails really blessed me as I began to recognise that some of the traits she saw in me ages ago, I now see in myself. Once upon a time I would argue with anyone who told me I was an inspirer. I’d explain it away by saying, ‘we’re all inspirers’ or ‘no I’m not, you are too kind to say that’. I sometimes shy away from compliments and see myself as the eternal student and not the teacher. Occasionally I feel uncomfortable when people tell me they’ve learned from me or I have encouraged them with my words or friendship. I wonder what they see. I don’t think I have any self-esteem issues. I just see myself as a normal, happy girl. Our hour-long phone conversation blessed us both. She encouraged me to begin a journey I have been holding back from and I promised her I would. Now I have accountability and can’t hide any longer, I’ll be sharing that journey with you too, soon! God showed me that my friend in Canada was a gift to me. He then went on to show me that in fact I was surrounded by good friends who are a blessing to me.

On Thursday I dialled into a teleconference, the topic was on setting goals, more on the speaker in another post but Valorie Burton is someone I admire greatly and have a great deal of respect for. We exchanged emails over the next few days and it warmed my heart that I was chatting with her. She helped me achieve clarity on a decision I needed to make. One advice she gives is to let your friends know what you value in them. Now coming from a Nigerian background being verbally affectionate to my friends does not come natural to me. I don’t often tell my best friends that I love them and appreciate their friendship. I show them via my actions. Maybe in an email or phone call I might end with ‘I love you’. But this isn’t the norm. I decided to email a friend to tell her just that. That blessed me because it blessed her.

So while all along I was crying out to God for a financial breakthrough with the words ‘bless me Lord’, He was busy blessing me. I didn’t know it. And not only that, I was busy blessing others. I receive emails from folks who tell me they were blessed by my blogs or emails. Someone told me this week that she gets disappointed when she checks to find I still haven’t updated it. I had no idea, but I am so humbled and thankful that I am blessed and God has seen it fit for me to be a blessing too.

Thank you for taking the time to read and share my writing, I encourage you to open your eyes and see what’s around you. Take your eyes off what you’ve been praying for and look and see what you have been blessed with. It is so easy to take for granted the fact that we are alive, where there is life there is indeed hope. And hope does not disappoint for while we were still in sin (death), Christ died for us.

Have a blessed week!