Mensa Otabil - You Are Blessed (11/05/2025)
Genesis 12:3: I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse him who curses you; and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed. This is what God said to Abraham, and we always like to talk about Abraham because the Bible calls him the father of faith. For those of us who believe in Christ, Abraham’s life is an example for us. He wasn’t a perfect man; Abraham made some mistakes along the way, but he was very consistent in trusting God and believing in God. In him, we see a human being just like us, pleasing God and doing the will of the Lord.
God called Abraham from his country to a new place. Now, Abraham didn’t know where that place was. God said, «Just walk,» so Abraham was just walking, looking for the place. God was taking him out of his own land, and he settled in different places. Everywhere he settled, he was a stranger, which is why his descendants were called strangers. The word «Hebrew» simply means «strangers.» Abraham was a stranger everywhere he went. There were people who were not his relatives, and most of the time, they were against him because Abraham was a prosperous man. He was a cattle herder; he had a lot of cattle, and he was doing well even when people were not doing well.
God said to Abraham, «Don’t fear where I’m taking you. People may not like you; they may be envious of you, and they may want to take your things from you. But I am with you.» This is what God guarantees Abraham: " I will bless those who bless you.» God says, «Everyone who does well for Abraham is doing well for Me. What they do to you, Abraham, they are doing to Me, and I see you as My child, My servant on the earth. When people bless you, they are blessing Me, and I will bless them back.»
So God is saying, «Abraham, don’t worry. You’re not just there alone. What people are doing to you, they’re doing to Me, and I will give them back what they have done.» If people bless Abraham, I bless them. The God of Abraham is our God, and that promise of Abraham extends to us if we have placed our faith in Christ Jesus. God is saying the same thing to you: You may seem like a stranger with no helper, but I will bless those who bless you. I’m with you, and if people do you good, I will do them good.
Then He said the opposite: If they do you bad, I will do them bad. If they curse you, they will be cursed. So Abraham’s guarantee was that God was with him, and people’s response to him would determine God’s response to them. God will not take action to curse anyone, but if they dare curse Abraham-cursing is not just about saying negative words to Abraham, but attacking Abraham, fighting him, or trying to take his property or cattle from him-God says, «If you do that, if you fight Abraham and try to dispossess him, I will come against you.» That was the confidence on which Abraham lived his life, and that’s why he could live as a stranger with no physical helper, but with God as his helper.
You know, many times we go through life feeling like that. We feel we have nobody, nobody to help us, nobody to lift us up, nobody to encourage us. We feel alone, and we feel people are just going to attack us and destroy us. But if we believe in God, then Abraham’s blessing is upon us. God says, «I’ll bless those who bless you, and I’ll curse those who curse you.» That’s a promise we can live by, trusting in Him that wherever we are, even if we don’t have any human help, the Lord has guaranteed to protect us, bless us, and make people treat us well.
Then He says to Abraham, «The blessing that I have put upon you, I’m going to allow it to share with as many people as possible.» May that be your portion also. Let us pray. Say with me: Heavenly Father, as You blessed Abraham, so have You blessed me. Make my life a blessing to my world. In Jesus' name, amen and amen.