BLESSED BY THE CROSS

“Then Israel stretched out his right hand and laid it on Ephraim’s head, who was the younger, and his left hand on Manasseh’s head, guiding his hands knowingly, for Manasseh was the firstborn.” – Genesis 48:14

REFERENCE:

Genesis 48:9-19

Manasseh and Ephraim were brought to Jacob, their blind grandfather, to bless them. Their father Joseph placed Manasseh, the firstborn, by Jacob’s right hand and Ephraim on the left. The reason is that the first in the order of birth should receive the double portion blessing of the spiritual inheritance. However, a switch occurred, and the younger was blessed by the ‘cross.’

The cross? Yes, Jacob knowingly crossed his hands; he extended his right hand over his left to bless Ephraim, the younger. The cross blessed Ephraim; he was the younger but got the older’s blessing. God chooses the weak things of this world, uses the least likely, and blesses those we think least qualify. Life’s natural order proposes that the prize should go to the best, strongest, finest, or one from the right family, but the cross of Jesus changed that.

Your life is not run by life’s natural order but by God’s unmerited grace, as revealed at Calvary. Jesus’ crossed’ out all our demerits and gave us ‘firstborn’ status. We do not deserve any of His blessings, but we are who and where we are today because of the cross of Jesus Christ. We were prisoners of sin, we were once not a people, we were aliens to the blessings of God, and we were objects of God’s wrath, but the ‘cross’ of Jesus has turned us into God’s righteousness.

Joseph determined the destinies of his children according to the order of their birth, but God had a different plan. It took the ‘crossing’ of Jacob’s hands for Ephraim to recover God’s destiny for him; Joseph would have sabotaged it. May God recover your destiny from every evil attempt to sabotage it based on your past experiences or the order of birth in your family.

This season, as we journey to the cross of Jesus to celebrate Easter, remember that you are blessed by the cross. Look to the Lamb of Calvary and drop all your demerits, weaknesses, fears, failures, worries, or man’s opinion. The cross symbolizes your victory and confirms that you have been irrevocably blessed. Rejoice; unmerited favor has found you at the cross.

PHOTO QUOTE

ADDITIONAL TEXTS:

I Corinthians 1:26-29, 1 Timothy 1:12-13, and Galatians 3:13-14.

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PRAYER:

+ Lord, I thank You for the cross of Jesus Christ and the miracle and blessings it brought to me.

+ Today, let the cross of Jesus cross out my demerits and qualify me to have God’s best for me.

+ By the cross, I access blessings, favor, opportunities, graces, and anointings that I have no natural merits for, in Jesus’ name.