“What do you want?” I have a friend who walks closely with Christ. I heard that God spoke to him in a time of prayer and asked him, “What do you want?” How would you answer that question? Is our answer different today than it would have been ten years ago? What does that say about our spiritual formation?
The word of the Lord came to Abram. Wait. How did it come? Was it written in the clouds in the sky? This expression “Dabar Yhwh,” the word of the Lord is the way the scriptures tell us God is talking to someone. It sounds personal to me, personalized, really. Perhaps at one of the altars Abram built to worship God, a personal word came to him. This feels more like a theophany to me than the Melchizedek narrative from the prior chapter. The Sovereign Lord, Lord God almighty had something to say to Abram. He delivered it personally, perhaps through the second member of the Trinity, whom we call the Son.
To flip our question: what did God want for Abram? God did not want Abram to be afraid. So often God starts conversations with, “Do not be afraid.” I heard (but have not personally counted them) that there are enough “Do not fear” passages in the Bible to give us that message every day of the year. Upon what would Abram found his fearlessness? The promises of God. God makes two promises here: First, God promises protection, “I am your shield.” Imagine how intrepid we might be if we knew for sure that no flaming arrow from the enemy could penetrate God’s protective presence and bring us harm. Second, God promises perfect provision. The Lord, the Lord himself would be Abram’s great reward. Whatever Abram lost in this life, he could never lose God’s love for him.
The Word of the Lord comes to us today. What does he want for us? I know when we pray, we express what we want. What God wants for us is the prior and more important question. Why? We might settle for less than God has for us. God’s promises to Abram are God’s promises to us, fulfilled in the coming of Jesus and the abiding presence of the Spirit. Today, everywhere we go, we go with God’s protection and God’s provision. Now why were we afraid?
