The Call (Part Four)

“Now the Lord had said to Abram:

‘Get out of your country,
From your family
And from your father’s house,
To a land that I will show you.
I will make you a great nation;
I will bless you
And make your name great;
And you shall be a blessing.
I will bless those who bless you,
And I will curse him who curses you;
And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.’”
(Genesis 12:1–3)

God called Abraham (1) to leave and (2) to follow, and He promised (3) to bless him and (4) to make him a blessing to others. These are God’s call and promises to us.

Much of the time, however, we get focused on #3 to the exclusion of the others. It is not wrong but altogether right for us to look to God for His blessing. “Every good and perfect gift is from above and comes down from the Father of lights,” and God wants us to look to Him for every good thing and to give thanks to Him for every good that comes to us. (That is the essence of “prayer” and “thanksgiving.”)

But it is inextricably woven into the woof and warp of the universe that the blessing of God is all tied up with loving and leaving—loving God above all else and with all your heart, loving your neighbor and desiring his good as much as you desire your own, and walking away from your own sin, the world of sin, and the devil who keeps calling you back to it.

Adam’s eldest son Cain is one who desired the one without the other. He was all about the blessing of God. And when he saw it falling on his brother Abel and not himself, he responded with anger and envy. “How come—he got—why didn’t I—?” God’s answer was simple: If you do well, if you do what is right, the blessing will come—trust Me. Cain was called to leave his sin behind, including his anger and envy, to seek the pleasure of God (“find out what is the will of God and do it”), and to love his brother as himself—to rejoice in his blessing as much as he would rejoice in his own. Cain resisted, however, and blessing eluded him the rest of his long and lonely life.

Certainly God has blessed us without our having to do a thing, just as Cain had been blessed prior to his own downfall as well. And God is gracious and merciful to offer us forgiveness and second chances when we get off track. For these things we give thanks, and without the grace and mercy and initiative of God, there is no blessing and no expectation.

But Abraham would never have received what God had promised—blessing to him and through him—if he had not responded the way God calls us to respond, namely, through repentance and faith, through turning from idols to serve the living and true God, through giving up all to follow Christ. But thank God he did, and thank God for the grace He gives for us to do the same.

“Grant us Your blessing, O Lord, and make us a conduit of blessing to others. Lead us not into temptation but into your paths of righteousness, and grant to us a persevering faith and a thorough repentance. We give thanks to You for all good things, dear God, and we look to You for all blessing and happiness and goodness in this life and throughout eternity, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.”