Are there still blessings when I feel overwhelmed?  

In difficult seasons, it’s easy to assume blessing has left the room. Yet sometimes the most meaningful gifts of God show up quietly – strength for today, peace in the storm, people who carry us when we’re weak. Blessing is not always loud or visible, but it is real. Even in hardship, God is still providing what we need most. 

In Luke 24:13–35, Jesus walks with two discouraged disciples and shows them that all of Scripture—beginning with Genesis—was always pointing to Him. He is the true and better Adam who overcomes sin, the true ark who carries us safely through judgment, the true tower who brings heaven down by grace instead of human striving, the true and better Abraham who fulfills God’s promise to bless all nations, the true Isaac who is both the promised son and the sacrifice God provides, the true Jacob who bridges heaven and earth, and the true Joseph who turns what was meant for evil into salvation for many. On the road to Emmaus, Jesus reveals that every story, every promise, and every thread of redemption finds its fulfillment in Him—the One who suffered, died, and rose again so that we might have life.

The promise that God gave to Abraham was extended to Isaac. Isaac received the favor and blessing of God, not because Isaac deserved it, but because God is gracious and God is a promise keeper. All of Isaac’s life points us to the amazing grace and love of God. Throughout Isaac’s life, God provides in ways that bless Isaac but also point us to God’s grace. Often Isaac doesn’t even seem to be the main character in his own story—he is a recipient of the good and loving work of God in a bigger story. One of the most powerful moments of lsaac’s life centers on God’s instructions to Abraham to give Isaac as a sacrifice. This unnerving story shows that God has a plan to do what we cannot do—there is no sacrifice that we could ever make to deal with the problems of sin and death, but God provides an offering that is greater. By faith we trust God to carry us through the difficult moments to something better. Throughout Isaac’s life, even beyond this scary event, God is present and providing. God provided a wife, He provided land and water, He provided children, and He would eventually use Isaac to extend the promise of blessing to a new generation that would carry on God’s promised blessing to others. In our own lives God continues to be present and providing. If look for God’s good and loving activity, we will realize that God’s grace is always moving us to His promises.

Even before God laid the foundations of the world, God planned to bring salvation and life through His Son. It was God’s good plan to bring a people together, to give them a law that would reveal both God’s good character and humanity’s great need for grace, to reveal Himself through great and miraculous events, and to bring through this people a savior. In the story of Abraham, we see the giving of a promise and the beginnings of this people group. Abraham received a call and a promise—a call to move out in faith and a promise that God would be faithful to give many descendants and land to be their home. But this promise was more than a people and a land—it was a promise that God would move history forward toward His ultimate plan. He would be present in mighty ways with this people, but this would only be a foreshadowing of His perfect presence on earth through the work of His Son, our savior, Jesus Christ. God calls Abraham to trust Him and move in faith so that this nation of people, the Israelites, would be born. And through this nation of people, God would reach all the nations. A savior would come through Israel so that all who call on the name of the Lord could be saved. God would bless Abraham so that he could be a blessing. He would bless Israel so that Israel could be a blessing. And today, God still brings blessing, not only upon Israel, but also upon His church. You and I are part of God’s family by faith. God is present and working. God brings blessing, but not to stay with us. He brings blessings so that they may flow through us. We too are blessed to be a blessing to the world. 

 Main Idea— Following the great flood, God once again instructs humanity to multiply and fill the earth. But once again we find people disobeying God. A large group of people gather in Babel with the intentions of building a great tower that will reach to the heavens. Their intentions are not to find their way to God but, rather, to bring God down to them. They intend to gain access to God so that they may manipulate the divine for their own purposes—to gain power and fame. God knows that this is a destructive behavior. Humanity is created to know God, to trust God, and to worship God. But we are not created to have the power of God. With sin’s mark on us and the world, that power would be devastating and destructive. So in God’s grace, God divides the people with different languages to spread them out across the earth. There is a great lie at work. The lie is that power and fame bring fulfillment, purpose, and life. The evil spiritual forces in opposition to God use this lie and make false promises to draw us in. Through empty promises and ego, we are often drawn away from the goodness of God. It is in grace that God divided the people so that they may discover their true need for Him and for salvation. And at the right time God would indeed come down to bring that salvation for His creation. 

God created everything good. In the Garden Adam and Eve had perfect connection to God. Two trees stood in the garden—the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Life was offered to them, but the God told them to refrain from the other tree. They were never meant to have that knowledge—they were meant to rely on God. At some unknown point, a created being rebelled against God and entered the garden in the form of a servant to pull Adam and Eve away from the perfect connection that they shared with God and one another. Eve was deceived by the serpent and Adam willfully chose to disobey. They believed that there was something better than God’s offer, and their rejection of God in this moment continues to ripple throughout all generations. 

In the third year of His ministry, Jesus came across a man that had been blind from birth. Jesus is moved with compassion for the man and He is stirred to display the glory of His Father in Heaven. So, he rubs mud on the man’s eyes and sends him to the pool of Siloam. The man returned seeing and praising God. When the religious leaders asked the man what happened, all he could say is ”I was blind and now I see. And the difference was Jesus.” While this frustrated the religious leaders, it no doubt moved others to believe. Noone had ever healed a person born blind. In fact, this was more of a creation story than a healing story. Because he was born without sight, Jesus had to create parts of this man’s brain that had never developed. Noone else could do it, and that is the point. Jesus can create and do things in us that no one else can do. When we let Him bring that new life in us, we get to tell others about it. And our stories have the power to point people to Jesus so that they, too, can experience that new life. We only need the courage to share.  

Action Step— Write out your faith story. It should include life before Jesus, meeting Jesus, and life after meeting Jesus. Make a plan to share this faith story with at least one person, and pray for an opportunity to share with someone that does not already know and love Jesus. 

The only way to follow Jesus and point others to Him is to become a servant. There is no way around this. Jesus came to serve rather than be served, and we are to do the same. As we seek to bless others, we look for ways to serve others. Mission projects and mission trips are important, but we are talking about a lifestyle and habit of serving that begins in your own community and ripples out. Serving neighbors, co-workers, classmates, and those that we meet in the community is a guaranteed way to bless others and point them to Jesus.  

Action Step— Find at least one way to serve someone around you this week. Don’t settle for what is the easiest. Rather, look for a reasonable and genuine action that will show the love of Jesus in an impactful way.  

For Jesus and his community, sharing a meal was an offer of lifetime friendship. While the experience around a table may not have the same implications for us today, it still has great power and impact. Making time and space in a busy, hectic, and disjointed world invites others into something that is increasingly scarce—true connection and the bestowing of worth to another. Jesus intentionally and even scandalously used meals as a critical part of his ministry and, when we do the same, we are likely to see people blessed, lives change, and perhaps people even come know and love Jesus.  

Action Step— Begin a habit of opening your home for a meal with others. Don’t be overwhelmed about the future of what it will look like—just get started. Be intentional with the invitation and focus on the connection more than presentation. 

We are effective in sharing the good news of Jesus when we lead with love, and love always begins with good listening. We must know the difference between hearing someone and listening to someone. Listening requires intentional presence and engagement. Listening becomes a posture and attitude—we become listeners who are open to understanding the experiences, hurts, and views of those in the community so that we can better share the truth of God with love and grace.