Blessed?

For 2021, I am reading through the Bible with the Bible Project-Biblical Storyline Reading Plan on the YouVersion App. This devotional will follow along with the daily reading.

Today's reading is: Genesis 12-15

Genesis 12:1-4 ASV - 1 Now Jehovah said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, unto the land that I will show thee: 2 and I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and be thou a blessing: 3 and I will bless them that bless thee, and him that curseth thee will I curse: and in thee shall all the families of the earth be blessed. 4 So Abram went, as Jehovah had spoken unto him; and Lot went with him: and Abram was seventy and five years old when he departed out of Haran.

At this point in Genesis, Jehovah (we call Him God) starts to focus on one family. God says He will bless all the families of the earth through Abram's family. 

One question that I need to ask myself is: What does the blessing of Abram mean for my life?

 1. God does the blessing. 

God's blessing will flow through Abram, but Abram is not the one helping people. It can become easy to slip into the focus of: What can I do to help people? The answer is absolutely nothing. Without God, my help will do nothing to help anyone.

2. What kind of blessing is this?

I struggle with forgiving people when I know that they do not know what they did to hurt others and themselves. How can I let them do harm without telling them why and how they are wrong?

It is a heavy burden to judge. The yoke of Jesus is light. The yoke of Jesus is to be forgiven. The yoke of Jesus puts the growth of our loved ones in His care. 

To often, I try to take justice into my own head. I sit around figuring out who did what and what they need to learn to change.

3. What does God do to bless others through me?

People keep telling me that I need to say things nicer, as though if I say it just right, then people will understand. That is absolutely false. When someone has a legitimate problem it is probably not because no one ever explained their problem to them properly. What tends to be the case is that people refuse to believe what they most need to know to repent. They believe all kinds of excuses instead of the truth. These are people who are suffering. They are under the burden of lies which keep them enslaved to their sin. They need to be loved beyond what they have ever experienced. They need people to come around them who are living according to the blessing of forgiveness. God gave me the gift of exhortation. I know what people need to do to repent. I do not have the spiritual gift of mercy. I understand what people need to do to be free. What I don't know is how to love them like God loves them through each step toward Him. I cannot use my spiritual gift of exhortation without God. I knew this before the trials started, but I was not applying it. I was not living the love that I need to receive from God daily. I cannot exhort without God's love living in my heart doing more than I ever could to show them the way. 

What I did instead of loving people was accuse them. I was furious. My anger is always from frustration. God continually puts me in situations to love people who demand of me something that I cannot give them. There is no right way to handle the situation. I cannot be wise enough to do what is right. God was frustrating the wisdom in me, so that I would seek His love.

1 Corinthians 1:19 ASV - For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, And the discernment of the discerning will I bring to nought.

The only wisdom is love. Without love, I find myself constantly frustrated. To have been given the knowledge of what is best for people, but to not be able to do anything to help them is endlessly frustrating. That is what my life is without the love of God coursing through my heart.

1 Corinthians 13:1 ASV - If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am become sounding brass, or a clanging cymbal. 

 No matter what spiritual gift I think I have from God, if I have not love, then that gift will not help anyone. The love of God will not flow through me to bless others, unless I surrender all I am and all I do to God's love. God acts. I surrender to His action in and through me.

John 13:35 ASV - By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another. 

God blesses us so that we can be a blessing. All blessings are made available to us by forgiveness through Jesus Christ. It is forgiveness that enables us to do good. When I try to do good without God, there is always a selfish motive lurking in me. That selfishness taints every good thing I try to do. I essentially glorify my evil reasons for wanting to do good. Only by glorifying the One who is worth glorifying can I do anything good.  Only God is good enough to glorify. 

Romans 7:18 ASV - For I know that in me, that is, in my flesh, dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me, but to do that which is good is not.

How do I love people through Jesus? 

People are most blessed when they come into contact with those who live according to forgiveness. Jesus gave his blood so that we all could be forgiven. The blood of Christ empowers us to love one another as He loves us. We love through the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace, having each received the same forgiveness. 

Luke 7:47 ASV - Wherefore I say unto thee, Her sins, which are many, are forgiven; for she loved much: but to whom little is forgiven, the same loveth little.

Ephesians 4:3 ASV - giving diligence to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.

Do I live in love because I have been forgiven much?