God’s agenda

 God’s Agenda

 

I will make you into a great nation. I will bless you and make you famous, and you will be a blessing to others. I will bless those who bless you and curse those who treat you with contempt. All the families on earth will be blessed through you.

GENESIS 12.2-3

 

From his abundance we have all received one gracious blessing after another. For the law was given through Moses, but God’s unfailing love and faithfulness came through Jesus Christ.

JOHN 1.16-17

 

Through Christ Jesus, God has blessed the Gentiles with the same blessing he promised to Abraham.

GALATIANS 3.14

 

When people hide what they really want or what they’re really trying to accomplish behind something else, we say they have a hidden agenda. It is a compliment when we say that someone is straightforward and honest, with no hidden agenda. And that is something we can say about God. He has made his agenda clear from the beginning. God’s agenda is this, He plans to bless us. In other words, he wants to give us a full, rich life. God wants to pour out his goodness on us. That’s his agenda.

Our problem with God’s agenda is not that it is hidden, but that it simply seems too good to be true. We don’t deserve God’s blessing, and we can’t earn it, it is a gift. In fact, when God chose to bless Abraham, he was no saint-in-training; he was more likely an idol-worshiper-in-training since his father worshiped other gods (see Josh 24.2). But in his promise to Abraham in Genesis 12, God declared his agenda for all of history, to bless people from all nations of the earth through Abraham and his descendants. The blessing promised to Abraham comes to us through the most important of Abraham’s descendants, Jesus Christ. Jesus is the blessing of God, given to us with no hidden agenda.