2026 Lent Devotions
Monday, February 23
Genesis 12:1-4a
1 The Lord said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. 2 I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. 3 I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”
4a So Abram went, as the Lord had told him, and Lot went with him.
“… and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed. …”
This is one of the great covenants given in Scriptures. The promise to Abram that he will be blessed, that his family and lineage will be blessed, and that through him and his legacy all peoples will be blessed, is a wondrous gift of God’s grace. As God calls forth Abram to be the ancestor of many nations, God initiative is blessing.
It would be difficult to count the number of times the people of God are blessed by God. Jesus issues blessings throughout his ministry. (Remember the Beatitudes.) God is obviously in the “blessing” business.
We today are both recipients of those blessings and purveyors of blessings to others. The Church and her people are called to be bearers of the blessings of God. We are to manifest those blessing in the words we speak and the deeds we do. Offering blessings, especially to those in need, those who are outcast or marginalized, those who strangers and aliens, and those who are “the least of these” is primary to our mission and ministry as people of faith.
From the beginning, God not only issues blessings upon God’s people be calls upon them to be sources of blessings in the world.
Prayer: God of Blessing, as you have blessed us, so You send us forth to be a blessing for others. Thank You for Your blessing on me. Show me how I may be a blessing for someone else today. Amen.