- Today, what would you celebrate today about your missional community?
- Today, what would you confess or lament about your missional community?
- Today, what are you hopes for your missional community?
Scripture: Genesis 12:1-4
Simple Prayer: God, you have blessed us in many ways. Give us wisdom to see that all that we have and all that we are belongs to you. Lead us to be your instruments of blessing in this world.
Devotional
Blessed to be a Blessing: Abram heard the voice of God calling him to go to Canaan. As part of that calling, God said an interesting thing: “I will bless you and make your name great and you will be a blessing…” And the Bible says that Abram believed God.
A principle is revealed here. God’s blessings are to be advanced. They are to be passed on.
So how has God blessed you?
God has blessed us! One of the blessings of our missional community has been fellowship. As a whole, we find joy and encouragement when we come together. We have worked and served together and formed a community together. We have fond memories, friendships, and a mutual sense of purpose. We stirred one another up to love and good deeds! How can we advance these blessings?
Another blessing: we’ve learned a lot about prayer, the scriptures, and discipleship, about learning from Jesus to live like Jesus. How can we advance these blessings to include others?
And yet another blessing: we’ve learned a great deal about life on mission, about finding ways to serve and bless others. And we’ve learned that the practice of mission is, in itself, a blessing. How can we advance these blessings to include others?
At LoveFirst Coast, one of the ways we have done this is through our value of blessing area churches. We affirm that God is working and has worked through local churches. In humility, therefore, we look for ways to bless local churches by celebrating God’s work in and through them. We encourage all in our communities who give generously of their time, talent, and treasure to support other churches. We pray for area churches and long to see churches fully engaged in mission on the First Coast, providing a provisional demonstration of God’s Kingdom here. (Jeremiah 29:4-7, Mark 9:38-41)
Another way we do this is by partnering with others on mission. We’ve looked to see where God is working in others to feed the hungry, to care for the weak, to protect the vulnerable, to proclaim the gospel, to bring healing… We want to bless anyone who is centered on Christ and working to see shalom restored.
And we want to bless our neighbors, friends, co-workers, colleagues – anyone God puts in our path or on our hearts.
We have been blessed to be a blessing. Actually, Abram is not our primary model for this. It’s Jesus. As the Father sent him, Jesus has sent us (John 20:21). Jesus blessed the world and has invited us into his work.
The same God who called Abram still calls us and invites people like you and me to respond in faith. How?
Reflection and Practice:
- How has God blessed you?
- How has God blessed you through your missional community?
- How are you passing it on? What’s helping? What’s hindering? How can Your missional community help?
- Have you considered that God may be creating community around you for being a blessing in our broken world? What evidence do you that he is? What evidence do you see that he is not?
- Is there anything you need to do in response? When and how will you do it?
LoveFirst Coast 