Focus: Life's Essential

Text: Gen.25:11

"And it came to pass after the death of Abraham, that God blessed Isaac; and Isaac dwelt by the well Lahai-roi."

Abraham, the father of faith dies and goes into his rest. Now attention shifts to Isaac.

In our text, two things are said about him, the first of which is that God BLESSED him. And that is where life truly begins. Isaac begins life with God's blessing. How can one begin and advance in life without God's blessing?

Life without divine blessing will not work. Labor without divine blessing is, more or less, energy dissipation. Relationship without God's blessing is only a time bomb. Success amounts to failure without God's blessing.

The blessing of God has no substitute in human existence. It is an essential prerequisite for the good life, indeed, a fundamental necessity for a meaningful existence.

In verse 5, Abraham bequeathed all he had to Isaac. Isaac is having everything, yet God thought it necessary to bless him. God knows he needed it for the life ahead. God's blessing determines everything.

Regardless of all you possess, without possessing God's blessing, your possession has no lasting or eternal value. The church of Laodicea knew it. They had everything, but the Lord Jesus says to them, "Thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked" - Rev.3:17. That is our true state where God is missing. In everything you do, earnestly seek God's blessing. Tap into your spiritual and heavenly blessing. Appropriate for yourself all the blessings you have in Christ - "all spiritual blessing in the heavenly places."

It is not enough to say, 'I am blessed.' Let the blessing of God be seen in your life. It has to become evidential to you and everyone else.

The second thing said of Isaac is that he lived by a well. We will deal with it in our next devotional.

Don't depend on what people give you. Depend on God's blessing. In all your getting, get God's blessing. Jacob and Jabez desperately desired and prayed for God's blessing, and they got it. By it Jabez became more honorable than his brothers. By God's blessing Jacob had a change of name - from Jacob to Israel. As a matter of fact, when Jabez prayed for God's blessing, he prayed to the God of Israel. He connected to and collected from that blessed name when he called on the God of ISRAEL.

It is sweet living and laboring with God's blessing. It is life's essential. Amen.

by Bishop Moses E. Peter