In 2024, I had the chance to swim in the Dead Sea, and it was absolutely surreal. The water was calm, almost glass-like, with the mountains of Jordan rising in the distance. But the moment we stepped in, everything felt different. It wasn’t like swimming anywhere else… You don’t sink, you float. Effortlessly. Your feet don’t even touch the bottom unless you force them down. It’s one of the strangest, most unforgettable experiences I’ve ever had.
But what struck me most is that it’s called dead for a reason. Nothing lives in the dead season. No fish. No plant life. No movement beneath the surface. Do you know why the Dead Sea is dead? Because water flows into the Dead Sea… but nothing flows out. It only receives, never gives. And over time, what should bring life actually produces lifelessness.
As you float in the Dead Sea, it’s a picture you don’t forget. In Genesis 12, God calls Abram into the exact opposite kind of life. He said, “I will bless you… and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed” (Genesis 12:3).
God promises to bless Abram, but not as an end in itself. Abram isn’t meant to be a Dead Sea, collecting and containing. He’s meant to be a river, not a reservoir; receiving and releasing God’s blessing.
That’s the heartbeat of faith. Faith is not just trusting God for what He can do for you; it’s trusting Him enough to let your life become a conduit for what He wants to do through you. It’s a shift from “to me” to “through me.”
And that shift doesn’t come naturally. As Abram’s story unfolds, not everyone treats him well. Some deceive him. Some threaten him. Some even want to kill him. You can almost imagine Abram asking, “God, do we really have to bless all the families of the earth? Even them?”
But that’s the deeper work God is doing, reshaping Abram’s heart. Moving him from self-protection to generosity, from holding back to pouring out. Teaching him that blessing isn’t something to store, it’s something to steward.
From the very beginning, this has been God’s vision. In Genesis 1-2, He creates a world where all people flourish under His blessing. And now, through Abram, that blessing is meant to spread to every family on earth. Abram isn’t the endpoint; he’s the starting point. And the same is true for us. We live in a world that tells us to accumulate, protect, and preserve, to become reservoirs. But the life of faith calls us to something better. You are not the Dead Sea. You are a river. What God pours into you, your time, your encouragement, your resources, your faith, is meant to flow through you to others.
In Jesus, this promise reaches its fulfillment (Galatians 3). Through Him, blessing flows to all nations. And now, by faith, we are invited into that same movement. So, where might you be holding onto what God meant to flow through you? Because the greatest blessing isn’t just receiving from God, it’s becoming part of how His blessing reaches the world.
Ryan Paulson
Lead Pastor