BELIEVE GOD AND BE SPECIALLY BLESSED
Whoever believes and delights in the Lord God will be blessed with the desires of their heart (Psalm 37:4). Abraham believed God and was given the desires of his heart. When we believe and delight in the Lord with all our heart, we will have a loving relationship with him, be given the desires of our heart, and the assurance of heaven (John 3:16; Matthew 6:33).
ABRAHAM BELIEVED GOD AND WAS BLESSED
The Lord told Abraham, “go from your country, your people and your father’s household to the land I will show you. I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you; I will make your name great… and all people on earth will be blessed through you” (Gen 12:1-3 NIV). Abraham believed God. Leaving a secure life, surrounded by a supportive extended family, Abraham obeyed God. Abraham was seventy- five years old, when he took members of his family and left for an unknown land based on God’s promise (Gen 12:4).
GOD REMAINED FAITHFUL WHEN ABRAHAM LAPSED IN FAITH. God also promised Abraham and his wife Sarah a son to be named Isaac, through whom God would establish a covenant to bless all nations. When Abraham was a hundred years old, and his wife age ninety, they wondered how God would fulfill this promise in their old ages.
Because of their ages, Abraham laughed inside. Sarah, thinking God needed help to produce a child for her husband, convinced Abraham to have a child by her young slave named Hagar. She conceived a child with Abraham called Ishmael. The child and his mother turned out to be more trouble than a blessing to Sarah and Abraham. (Gen 16:1-5; 17:15- 21).
However, God kept his promise to Abraham and his wife Sarah. Within a year, Sarah gave birth to a son. Abraham called his son Isaac as God had previously instructed him to do when the child was born (Gen 21:1-6).
GOD HELPED ABRAHAM AND STRENGTHENED HIS FAITH. God helped Abraham to restore and strengthen his trust in God. The Lord asked Abraham to take his beloved son Isaac to a mountain to sacrifice him as a burnt offering to the Lord.
Abraham took his son with firewood to the mountain. He built an altar and was about to slay his son on it, but an angel of the Lord stopped him. God told Abraham because he had not withheld his beloved son, “I will indeed bless you and make your offspring as numerous as the stars in the sky… and all nations of the earth will be blessed because you have obeyed my command” (Gen 22:17-18 HCSB).
The tests that God allows in our live may be painful, but he uses our trials like fire to purify our faith and strengthen our relationship with him (1 Peter 1:6-7).
ABRAHAM REALIZED THE PROMISES OF GOD. Because Abraham believed and delighted in God, the Lord gave Abraham and his descendants possession of the promised land of Canaan, “from the brook of Egypt to the Euphrates River” (Gen 15:18 HCSB).
As God promised Abraham, the whole world would be bless through him. Jesus Christ, the Messianic Son of God, came through the lineage of Abraham to bless the whole world (Matthews 1:1-16; John 3:16). Jesus said: “ Abraham rejoiced to see My day, and he saw it and was glad” (John 8:56).
WE ARE SPECIALLY BLESSED FOR BELIEVING AND DELIGHTING THE LORD
When we believe and delight in the Lord Jesus Christ according to God’s Word, we receive God’s special blessings:
- When we seek first the kingdom of God and it righteousness by repenting of our sins and believing in Jesus Christ, all other things that we need and desire according to God’s will are added (Matthews 6:33; Acts 2:38; Psalm 37:4).
- We have a relationship with God as his children through faith in Christ Jesus (Galatians 3:7, 26; 1 John 3:1).
- God supplies all of our needs and godly desires according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus (Philippians 4:19).
- if we should have a lapse in faith because of our own inadequacy, God remains faithful (2 Timothy 2:13; 2 Corinthians 3:5; 1 John 1:9).
God works all things together for good for us who believe in and love the Lord, in conforming us to the likeness of his only begotten Son, Jesus Christ (Romans 8:28-29).
