Theme of the Week: Receiving and Being a Blessing
Bible Verse: “The LORD had said to Abram, ‘Go from your country, your people and your father’s household to the land I will show you. ‘I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.’” Genesis 12:1-3
This is the first great commission: go, and walk in blessing – receiving it, releasing it.
This is not unlike the great commission Jesus gave us. As we’ll see on the last day of this week’s devotionals, Jesus also intended his disciples – you and me – to go, and to walk in blessing, receiving it and releasing it.
It all began with our spiritual father, Abram (Abraham). The call of God on him – and by extension, on us – was to translate his own greatness – in size, in stature, in influence – into acts of blessing. Blessing is the way God’s people are to inhabit the earth. It is to be our signature. It is to be the thing we are known for. It is to be the mark of our greatness.
The most striking thing about this passage, though, is the grammar: except in one instance, Abraham is the object, not the subject, passively receiving actions initiated by God. He is not the agent of blessing: he’s the recipient. God tells Abraham to “Go.” That is his sole command to Abraham here. After that, God performs all the actions. He makes. He blesses. Abraham simply opens wide to receive.
Does that mean he had no active role in blessing others? Does that mean we have no active role, either? No. First, Abraham had to choose to heed the clear command to go, and so do we. We often fail to receive and to extend God’s blessing because we ignore or resist to command to go. We have other plans, different ambitions. We don’t see ourselves first and most as God’s man called to God’s purposes for God’s glory. We don’t see our primary identity as ambassadors. So, we grow spiritually sedentary. Our inertia bottles up divine blessing.
And if you become spiritually sedentary and inert, likely your family will imitate you.
The second thing Abraham needed to do was to believe God. This was the taproot of his faith. This is what God credited to him as righteousness. And so with us. It is an act of audacious faith to believe, despite sometimes glaring evidence to the contrary (think of Abraham and Sarah’s years of childlessness), that God is faithful to his promises. It takes courageous faith to walk a lifetime with your arms held open, ready to receive God’s blessing, ready to release it.
Just as faith like that was Abraham’s righteousness and legacy, so faith like that will be your righteousness and legacy. It will be your children’s and your children’s children’s inheritance.
As you go today, go believing God. Receive his blessing. Release it.
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