Faith and Blessing

Scripture Texts: Genesis 12:1-9; Hebrews 11:8-10; Galatians 3:7-14

It was not because of anything Abram did, or anything that Abram offered to God. It was because of Abram's faith in God that he was considered righteous. The faith of Abram brought him from his home to a place that God revealed at the time he arrived there. In other words, Abram packed up all of his household and everyone traveled until God made it clear they had arrived at the right place.

This would be like us loading up a moving truck and starting to drive without a sense of where we would stop. Every step of the way we would simply ask God if this is the right place. Not until God showed us would we set up our new home.

All of this instigated God making a covenant with Abram, who would become Abraham. In the covenant the land is promised to Abram and his descendants as well as God blessing Abram. Important in the blessing is that Abram was blessed by God so that he could be a blessing to all the world. Faith and blessing were not simply for the prosperity of Abram and his family, it was so that the whole world would know the blessing God.

In the first year of our marriage we moved from our first home to an apartment several hours away. We loaded up the moving van and headed out. At the time of our departure we knew what city we were headed to, and we had an address but we had never seen the apartment that would become home. Work schedules and distance did not allow for us to tour the apartment so we depended on the insights of another person and went.

The reason we made the move was so that Aaron could start seminary and follow the calling God had placed on his life. We had no idea where life would take us from there but we knew that God was calling us to that place. Since then we have moved several times, each time not sure about where God would take us but being sure that God was calling us.

In it all we have felt blessed by God. Not all the moves have been easy or even sought after. Still as we have moved we have found God leading us to the place we needed to be. Our role has been to be faithful to where God has called. Through that we have experienced the blessing of God, not just for ourselves but so that others may experience the blessing as well. Most days it is easy for us to feel blessed to be a blessing, and on the days it is not as easy to feel that way, we try to be a blessing anyway.