What Are We Doing Here?

Fifty-2 Sunday’s ~ Listening for God

         I doubt I am the only one who has ever wondered what am I doing here. What is God’s will for my life and am I living it? These sorts of questions have weighed heavy on me in the past and while I have more peace about it now – still I wonder if I am spending my life-time appropriately.  I am encouraged by people I read about in scripture who appear to have been regular folk living a life that might be considered ordinary but then - God stepped in to ask something of them - something beyond their everyday.

The sermon Sunday was about such a person- Abraham, We looked at key points in his life - moving from Genesis 15 through chapter 21 in the scriptures. Abraham fulfilled God’s purpose for his life by being faithful and was used by God in great ways. The minister said Abraham's story tells God's story (one of creation - fall- redemption and recreation) summarized in four points:

1.   God fulfills his promises. 
Abraham was promised a son and that he would be the father of many nations (Genesis 17:5). Abraham received the son God promised. This was a foreshadowing of the promised redeemer (Jesus).

2.   God’s saves people by faith and makes them righteous. 
Abraham’s faith was credited to him as righteousness (Romans 4:18-22) - today it is faith in Jesus that saves and makes us righteous in God’s eyes (Romans 4:23-25).

3.   God’s eternal mission continues.
Now through the church-we are called to be a blessing to others.

4.   God promises to be with us (leading, guiding and providing) until the end of time.

It was the third point that the Holy Spirit used to address the question I posed in the paragraph above. In the words of the minister he said “Our purpose is to be a blessing--to bless others in order that they get a little taste and vision of God”. This touched me. It somehow lifted an assumed responsibility (one not necessarily recognized) - to fulfill some mission or special purpose about which I have been unclear. Instead my purpose is to bless someone(s). It sounds so simple because it is simple. Like when Jesus suggested that ‘a cup of water offered in his name…’ can be suffice (Mark 9:41) and comes with a promise - that the person offering the cup ‘will not lose his reward’. 

There is magic and power in this along with joy and a sense of freedom, because blessings come in many forms-there is no ‘one’ or ‘right’ way to bless another person. This fulfills the charge to “seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well” (Matthew 6:33). In blessing others we are blessed. I'd say this answers the question about what we are doing here-wouldn't you?

 (P.S. I will be on vacation for the next couple weeks...I will not necessarily have internet connectivity--so I will resume this when I return.)