Blessed to Be a Blessing

Do you ever sit and reflect back across your life to see how you arrived at this moment? I am compelled to do this during difficult times, but even more so in times like right now when I sense the Spirit of God moving and bringing my dream into focus. If you have never dared to dream, take some time, find an inspirational spot and ask God to help you dream about the purpose He has planned for your unique life. He just might blow your mind! And once He blows your mind, be brave enough to trust Him and follow the path He has laid out for you.

Think about Abram (We know him better as Abraham). He was just chillin’ one day – at the age of 75 – when the God of the universe dropped in and said I choose you. God said,

“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.
I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse;
and all people on earth will be blessed through you.” Genesis 12:2-3

Abram was a regular guy. He did know God and desired to serve Him. Genesis 15:6 says “Abram believed the Lord, and he credited it to him as righteousness.” Abram made plenty of mistakes even after this declaration of Abram’s salvation by the Lord, but it is clear he did love God and was willing to obey Him even when it didn’t make sense. God changed his name from “exalted father” to “father of many”, and we are the product of the covenant God made with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob – we, like them, are blessed to be a blessing.

I am closing in on my 37^th birthday and a few years ago I was concerned about this aging thing. I was so impatient and scared. While still in my 20s I would wonder why haven’t I “arrived” at the BIG thing I am supposed to be doing? I would look at other women who were doing things I thought I should be doing and asked why not me yet? I was jealous. I couldn’t really be happy for their success at being a blessing because I was so concerned about my thing and why I wasn’t being used in the gifts and talents God had clearly given me. We had a fourth child and if I am honest, I was concerned that that would only set me back. As my children get older we face challenges in parenting that on the surface are just nuisances and bring out my insecurities and fears which I certainly don’t want anyone to see.

Now here I sit on my couch thousands of years after Abraham’s epic story, and I am beginning to wrap my brain around how God is blessing me so I can be a blessing to all nations. God has positioned our family here in Fayetteville, Arkansas to understand our place in His story and be completely sold out to it. My God dream isn’t coming true by accident. It isn’t happening in spite of anything. It is coming true because of His faithfulness and fierce love for me. It is all coming together because of a clear choice to spend time with God developing a relationship with Him as He has designed. It is coming from the answered prayer that God make me teachable and useable. It is born out of obedience and learning to surrender to His will. It comes from an understanding that when I die to myself and allow Christ to live, I am more “me” than I ever could be on my own. It is happening through transparency with our children and allowing God to refine me through parenting these beautiful gifts He has entrusted to us. The dream is coming into clear view as a result of being content with where I am and trusting that God will continue to work out every detail. I have never been so happy to be patient and so giddy about the future. Every day I am more alive thanks to God’s covenant with Abraham that he was blessed to be a blessing so that I can now take my place in His story and be a blessing too.

As you read this and think about how you arrived at the place you are currently, trust God like Abram did. Even when life is crazy and the kids are wearing you out, trust God and respond to life in light of His fierce love and faithfulness. Find that quiet place and your favorite worship music and dare to dream for yourself, your marriage, your children. My prayer for you today is Paul’s prayer to the Ephesians.

“I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge – that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.” (Ephesians 3:16-19)