“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 … and all will be blessed through you.” Genesis 12:2-3
Abraham had a pretty simple life. He was living in the land of Ur near the town of Harran where his family had lived for generations. He was married. He was wealthy. He had no kids. Life was mostly quiet and simple and easy.
Then God moves Abraham to the land of Canaan. And everything changed. Life for Abraham was no longer about just about Abraham. Now he had kids, and then grandkids, and then an entire nation to care for.
What happened? Abraham learned that he was sent to bless.
“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 … and all will be blessed through you. Genesis 12:2-3
There is a three-fold promise in that verse. Each part builds upon the other.
“I will bless you.”
God intends to bless you. That is His heart, His purpose, His plan. I shared that with a friend who was going through a difficult stretch recently. He replied back that God was not doing a very good job.
God’s job is to bless me. My job is to be blessable. To live a life that He can and will bless.
“I will bless you.
You will be a blessing.”
God’s plan is not just to bless me but to bless me so that I can bless others. This is the build out part of the plan. He wants me to pass on what He blesses me with to others in my life. The love, the joy, the peace that He blesses me with – He intends to use me to pass those on to others.
“I will bless you.
You will be a blessing.
All will be blessed through you.”
Now this really gets interesting. God’s plan is not just to selectively bless certain people through me. God’s plan is to bless all the people in my life through me.
Did Abraham know what He was signing up for on the front end? Probably not. And you and I did not know all that we were signing up for when we first became Christ Followers.
But here is the deal one more time. God wants to bless me, so that I can be a blessing – to all those around me.
In other words – I am sent to bless.
God’s plan in my home is to bless my family members through me.
God’s plan in my neighborhood is to bless my neighbors through me.
God’s plan in my workplace is to bless all who work there through me.
God’s plan in my play places (the places where I hang out) is to bless those folks through me.
I am sent to bless others.
One of the great truths of the Christian life is that God intends for me to share everything I have with others. My sorrows are to be shared with others – because a shared burden is a lighter burden and those who help me carry it will be blessed. My joys are to be shared with others – because a shared joy multiplies and gives light and laughter to all who experience it. My blessings are to be shared with others – because God wants to bless us all.
But this truth goes beyond just sharing our blessings. I am to be a blessing. I am to bless them by who I am.
I am sent to bless. That means that I am not just carrying the good news. I am to be the good news. I am to embody the good news. I am to become the good news.
For too long, we have seen the good news as something we share – as something we tell. And it is that. But it is also something we do, something we are, something we become. The gospel is not just an encounter that changes our eternal destiny. The gospel changes our lives now. It changes our character now. It changes our reality now. And when we walk in and live out that reality, we become a blessing to others.