Genesis 12:1-3; 17:5
Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go from your country and your
kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you.
And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you, and
make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless
those who bless you, and him who curses you I will curse; and by
you all the families of the earth shall bless themselves.
“No longer shall your name be Abram, but your name shall be
Abraham; for I have made you the father of a multitude of
nations.”
Hebrews 11:8-12 (NCV)
8 It was by faith Abraham obeyed God’s call to go to another place God promised to give him. He left his own country, not knowing where he was to go.
11 He was too old to have children, and Sarah (his wife) could not have children. It was by faith that Abraham was made able to become a father, because he trusted God to do what he had promised. 12 This man was so old he was almost dead, but from him came as many descendants (children) as there are stars in the sky. Like the sand on the seashore, they could not be counted.
“Count your blessings. Name them one by one. Count your many blessings see what God has done”. Those are the words to one of my favorite hymns of thanks, “Count Your Blessings”. The truth is, if we really tried to count our blessings, we just couldn’t. There are far too many ways that God has been good to us to count. But what if our blessings came at great cost?
For Abraham, the cost of being blessed out of his mind by God, would be that he would have to trust God and leave everything he knew. God called him to leave his family, all his cousins, aunts, uncles, parents and grandparents, and go with just his wife and his animals to a place that God would show him. Leaving your family was something you just didn’t do back then. Your family was your entire community and God was telling Abraham to have faith that if he left his family, that God would be his family, his community, his guide, his map. God basically said “start over, start walking and I’ll tell you when you get there.” And when he got to the place that God had chosen for him…if he followed through, God promised Abraham more family than there were stars in the sky!
But there was also something different in those days about God’s blessing. Blessings weren’t something that you counted once a year. To be blessed by God, was to be chosen and set apart for something great…your blessing was who you were; your entire way of life. A blessing from God was passed on from generation to generation. If you were blessed, your entire family would be blessed. That made saying no to God’s offer of a blessing that came with a cost, a lot more difficult than it might be for us today. Today we have so much, what’s one more blessing?
The truth is, we think that we can do so much on our own, that we often forget to ask God what God wants to do in our lives. God wants to lead us on a path of blessing, a blessing that is special and just for us, but first we must trust in Him, leave our old lives behind and give God total control over who we are.
Wait a minute! God DOES call us to give up our old lives to get a blessing…the blessing of Salvation, the blessing of a life lived in relationship with God, the blessing of eternal life, the blessing of peace in knowing that God is in control of our lives.
This Christmas, God is calling us to live into the mystery of his blessing. It is a blessing that we can’t hold or plan for, but rather an unexpected blessing that will change everything. A blessing that can’t fit under a tree.
Sounds exciting!
Discussion Questions:
1. What does it mean to be a blessing to others?
2. What would you give up so that others might be blessed?
Would you be willing to give up some of the money that is
spent on you at Christmas to know that it is being given so that
others can hear that they have the choice of asking Jesus to be
their Savior and the blessing of eternal life?
Prayer for the World: Pray for the salvation of the sultan, the spiritual monarch and elected governor of our province. He maintains animistic practices that perpetuate the spiritual darkness in the region.
Family activity: (You will need a candle) Today’s family activity goes with prayers for the world. Decorate your ornament for day five and think about our missionaries Josh and Betty Stewart who minister ti the people of Southeast Asia. Many people in SE Asia practice a belief system call Animism, which is the belief that all things have a spirit or soul, including animals, plants, rivers, mountains, stars, the moon, and the sun. Each being is considered a spirit that can offer help or harm to humans. Often those that practice animism make animal sacrifices to the spirit of those animals or things to keep that spirit happy so that the spirit will bless them. They have no idea that there is only one God and that only Jesus can save them and bless them.On a darker note, sometimes the spirit of animals or other things are called upon to harm other people. This is known as black magic. This is a darkness that Satan uses to control people through fear. Tonight, light a candle in your home and pray that the light of the world, Jesus Christ, might shine through the darkness and chase away the lies and darkness of black magic and animism. If you want, light this candle each night to remind you to pray for Josh and Betty who are working to share “the Light of the World” in a land of spiritual darkness.
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