Living By Faith - The Greatest Gift

I will bless you . . . and you will be a blessing to others.

Genesis 12:2

Today's Reading

The LORD had said to Abram, “Leave your native country, your relatives, and your father’s family, and go to the land that I will show you. I will make you into a great nation. I will bless you . . . and you will be a blessing to others. I will bless those who bless you and curse those who treat you with contempt. All the families on earth will be blessed through you.”

So Abram departed as the LORD had instructed, and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he left Haran. He took his wife, Sarai, his nephew Lot, and all his wealth—his livestock and all the people he had taken into his household at Haran—and headed for the land of Canaan. When they arrived in Canaan, Abram traveled through the land as far as Shechem. There he set up camp beside the oak of Moreh. At that time, the area was inhabited by Canaanites.

Then the LORD appeared to Abram and said, “I will give this land to your descendants.” And Abram built an altar there and dedicated it to the LORD, who had appeared to him.

Genesis 12:1-7

This is the gift that wraps up all stresses quiet:

I will bless you.

“I will bless you,” says the God who comes to where you are.

Who comes in the heaviness of the day, to the space where the weight hangs on the edges of you, so you just keep holding your breath, so you just keep forgetting to breathe.

But the weight of everything melts like thinning snow in the heat of His words: “I will bless you.” He will not burden you. He will not break you. He will bless you—the God of invincible reliability, the God who has infinite resources, the God who is insistent love. You can always go ahead and breathe—He will bless. You can always breathe when you know all is grace.

That is the order of grace. . . .

The personal blessings envelop you first. Then you are the blessing sent to the world.

You will be experienced as a blessing—to the extent you have first experienced yourself as blessed. You must feel the fullness of your own pitcher before you trust the pouring out of yourself.

“It is no use for you to attempt to sow out of an empty basket, for that would be sowing nothing but wind,” wrote Spurgeon.^a

So slow down to feel the wind. Listen to the carols just a little bit longer. Linger in the quiet and taste the grace of now, and know that He is good and He is God. Name them in this moment—gift upon gift upon gift—and listen for the echo in everything: I will bless you.

D. L. Moody once wrote, “Faith is the gift of God. So is the air, but you have to breathe it; so is bread, but you have to eat it; so is water, but you have to drink it.”^b

Breathe it, eat it, drink it—leave the blur of Ur and slow to taste and see the promised land of Advent, of Christmas, of His Coming—the blessing of gift upon gift. Only when you first unwrap the gifts of blessings to you can you be wrapped up as a gift of blessing to others. Only when you are overwhelmed with the goodness of God can you overflow with the goodness of God to others.

And that is the blessing God graced Abram with, the blessing He graces you with this Advent, the gift that makes you a gift. The greatest gift God graces a soul with is His own presence.

So the whirl can hush and the spin can slow because He will bless, and He will bless with Himself come down. The present is His presence, and the greatest present you always have to give is His presence—looking into someone’s eyes as you listen, refusing the wrong of rushing, lingering long enough to really listen—to everything.

There is no need for more: the heart is full of gifts that is full of Christ.

It’s strange how that happens—that any place becomes the Promised Land when the blessing of His presence becomes the gift we receive—and give.

Advent happening anywhere.

Unwrapping More of His Love in the World

Go to a new place today—to a neighbor’s home you’ve never been before. Be a blessing and bring your neighbor a blessing of some sort. Leave him or her a Christmas card telling about Jesus, the blessing God gives to all people on earth!

The birth of the child into the darkness of the world made possible not just a new way of understanding life but a new way of living it.

FREDERICK BUECHNER

A Moment for Reflection

How has God blessed you, as He blessed Abram?

In what ways have other people overflowed God’s grace into your life?

What are some ways you can be a blessing to others?