Moving out from our current situation
It may be necessary to move out from our current situation in order to enjoy God’s blessings.
(Gen 12:1-2 NIV) The LORD had said to Abram, “Leave your country, your people and your father’s household and go to the land I will show you. {2} “I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. ”
God blesses us so that we can bless others
(Gen 12:1-3 NIV) The LORD had said to Abram, “… {2} “I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. {3} I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.”
When God blesses you, are you in turn blessing others? God blesses us so that we can bless others. This means that if we do not use our blessings to bless others, God may stop blessing us.
God can bless you despite the situation you are in
(Gen 26:1-3 NIV) Now there was a famine in the land–besides the earlier famine of Abraham’s time–and Isaac went to Abimelech king of the Philistines in Gerar. {2} The LORD appeared to Isaac and said, “Do not go down to Egypt; live in the land where I tell you to live. {3} Stay in this land for a while, and I will be with you and will bless you. For to you and your descendants I will give all these lands and will confirm the oath I swore to your father Abraham.
God promised to bless Isaac in a land where there was famine. Your current situation may seem like an unlikely breeding ground for God’s blessings. Yet God promises to bless you despite that. Because it is not the situation that matters. It is God’s presence.
God promised to bless Abraham with many children despite his old age. Our God is a God of impossibilities.
Using wrong means to “help” God fulfill His blessings
Genesis 16:12 (NIV) Now Sarai, Abram’s wife, had borne him no children. But she had an Egyptian maidservant named Hagar; 2 so she said to Abram, “The LORD has kept me from having children. Go, sleep with my maidservant; perhaps I can build a family through her.” Abram agreed to what Sarai said.
Abraham’s faith faltered when he became older and older and still had no children. He ran ahead of God’s plan and eventually had a son through the maid called Ishmael. Ishmael would later grow up to be the ancestor of the Muslim race and a constant enemy to the tribe of his other son Isaac, who is the father of the Jews.
It is tempting to compromise in our Christian standards in order to get something. But God’s blessings cannot be achieved with wrong means. We have to trust God to fulfill His blessings His way, the right way.
Act in accordance with the faith that God will bless you
(Gen 26:12 NIV) Isaac planted crops in that land and the same year reaped a hundredfold, because the LORD blessed him.
Despite the famine, Isaac planted crops and the Lord blessed him with big harvest. In a famine, we usually do not plant crops. It is wasted effort! But Isaac acted in faith that God would bless him no matter what the situation. His faith resulted in actions that are consistent with faith. He planted crops.
The blessings of God does not go away despite the situation changing
(Gen 37:3 NIV) Now Israel loved Joseph more than any of his other sons, because he had been born to him in his old age; and he made a richly ornamented robe for him.
Joseph received an outward representation of his father’s blessings, a richly ornamented robe.
(Gen 37:23 NIV) So when Joseph came to his brothers, they stripped him of his robe–the richly ornamented robe he was wearing–
When Joseph’s brothers plotted to kill him, Joseph lost that robe. Outwardly, he has lost his blessings. But that was not the case. Even though Joseph lost his robe, the blessings stayed with him.
(Gen 39:1-2 NIV) Now Joseph had been taken down to Egypt. Potiphar, an Egyptian who was one of Pharaoh’s officials, the captain of the guard, bought him from the Ishmaelites who had taken him there. {2} The LORD was with Joseph and he prospered, and he lived in the house of his Egyptian master.
The very first place that Joseph was put in, the Lord blessed him. It did not matter that Joseph lost that outward appearance of a blessed man, God’s blessings remained with him.
When God takes away your existing blessings, it is because He has greater blessings installed for you.
(Gen 41:39-42 NIV) Then Pharaoh said to Joseph, “Since God has made all this known to you, there is no one so discerning and wise as you. {40} You shall be in charge of my palace, and all my people are to submit to your orders. Only with respect to the throne will I be greater than you.” {41} So Pharaoh said to Joseph, “I hereby put you in charge of the whole land of Egypt.” {42} Then Pharaoh took his signet ring from his finger and put it on Joseph’s finger. He dressed him in robes of fine linen and put a gold chain around his neck.
Joseph lost the robe given by his father but now had new garments from Pharaoh. Outwardly, he lost the blessings of his father but got the blessings of a King instead.
Wait patiently for God’s blessings
(Gen 12:1-2 NIV) The LORD had said to Abram, “Leave your country, your people and your father’s household and go to the land I will show you. {2} “I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing.
God wanted Abraham to learn patience when His promises seem to be slow in coming. God gave Abraham a son many years after His original promise and only when Abraham was 100 years old. As the years went, Abraham had to keep the faith that God will fulfill His promise when increasingly it became more difficult for him to have a son because of his wife’s old age.
(Heb 6:12-15 NIV) We do not want you to become lazy, but to imitate those who through faith and patience inherit what has been promised. {13} When God made his promise to Abraham, since there was no one greater for him to swear by, he swore by himself, {14} saying, “I will surely bless you and give you many descendants.” {15} And so after waiting patiently, Abraham received what was promised.
We need to wait patiently for God’s promise. We cannot expect God to fulfill His promise in our timeframe.
Blessing of God is activated by faith
(Gen 45:4-5 NIV) Then Joseph said to his brothers, “Come close to me.” When they had done so, he said, “I am your brother Joseph, the one you sold into Egypt! {5} And now, do not be distressed and do not be angry with yourselves for selling me here, because it was to save lives that God sent me ahead of you.
At the end of the story of Joseph, we saw that while God had blessed him, those blessings were made possible by the faith that Joseph had. Even in the low points of his life, he did not doubt that God would bless him. He had faith that he continued to be in God’s prosperous plan for him despite the situation he was in.