Blessed to be a Blessing

"And I will make you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great; and so you shall be a blessing; and I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse. And in you all the families of the earth will be blessed." -Genesis 12.2-3

A few years ago I had a rare opportunity for a protestant minister. I got to deliver a message in a Catholic church. It was part of a community Thanksgiving service, and as the new guy in town, I got the task of speaking. It was a bit of an overwhelming week, but looking back, I'm glad I got to do it, because how many protestants get an opportunity like that?

I used this passage from Genesis. In our world today there is a lot of teaching on what is called the Prosperity Gospel. It's the idea that God blesses us for our comfort and happiness. In a sense, God blesses you for you. But the more I think about it, the more I realize how messed up that point of view is. As clearly see here in Genesis 12, God blesses us so that we can in turn bless others.

God says to Abram, "I will bless you, and in you everyone else will be blessed." Abram isn't blessed for his own comfort and well being, he is blessed so that he can be a blessing. Ultimately this blessing comes in the person of Jesus Christ, who brought salvation for the world. But there is also the call, and the commission, to bless others in any way that we can.

My wife and I have finally gotten to a point in life where we can begin to get on our feet. All part of the journey into the unknown we're on. But as we've gotten to this new position, we started it with a prayer "God, help us to be as generous as we always said we would be."

We've always talked about wanting to help people, but financially we were never in a position to really be able to do much. When you make next to nothing, and from that nothing have to live, and pay off student loans, there isn't much left. To clarify, we did do what we could even then, but now we're at the point where we can do more. And so we want our focus to be, "God help us to bless others with what You have blessed us with."

God doesn't bless us so that we can hoard and stock pile. He blesses us so that we can bless. What has God blessed you with? How can you take that and bless someone else? You have been blessed to be a blessing.

"Iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another."

To God alone be the Glory!

Strength and Honor