I will make you….
When I look back on the earliest years of my Christian life, I realise that I don’t want to go back to my faith as it was then. It was a season of excitement, discovery and risk - but also a time of bewilderment, confusion and depression as I struggled to get to grips with what it means to be a follower of Jesus. But there is one element that I’d love to recover from my past - and that was the sense of expectation, the blessing of God that I had. When Kay and I got married, we were virtually broke as we began our lives together - but we were happy and expectant that God would bless and provide for us. He did. But greater financial security can mean that we lean less on God.
Abram was promised that God would bless him as he journeyed: the word ‘bless’ is used five times in this chapter, and is very frequent in Genesis, occurring 88 times. God was not only interested in developing the ‘Israel’ project - He was deeply concerned for Abram personally. In response to the humanistic Babel project that was a failed monument to self sufficiency, God wanted a man - and a community - that would experience His help and provision in their everyday life. This was radical stuff: the concept of blessing is not found in classical Greek literature. Zeus is not said to have bestowed any specific act of blessing upon anyone. Rather it was claimed he caused good luck or good fortune.
God calls us to be prayerful and grateful for daily bread, and realise that, however hard we work, ultimately He is our source and provider. Faith for provision shouldn’t only be ours when we face urgent needs: in want, or in plenty, let’s be grateful and prayerful - be blessed and be a blessing too.