Verse of the Day: 1 Samuel 25:11, Shall I then take my bread and my water and my meat that I have killed for my shearers, and give it to men when I do not know where they are from?”
Can we imagine if God had decided to keep Heaven to Himself? What if He simply decided that He would just go ahead and start all over and create a new batch of humans that would not rebel against Him and just let us all perish? What a tragedy and what hopelessness we would live with, knowing that our end would be eternal condemnation with no hope of redemption at all. Praise to our God and Father, to our Savior, who chose to bless us by giving us His only begotten Son, that none of us who put our faith in the finished work of Jesus would perish (John 3:16). Note what God did with that blessing we received in Christ. He did not tell us to keep it to ourselves, but commanded us to go out and “preach the Gospel to every creature” (Mark 16:15). So is His desire for the physical blessings we receive in life. Nabal was an evil, self-centered man. Although David and his men had served him well, in spite of the fact that it was not there duty to do so, he returned their kindness with insults and an unwillingness to provide for them even though he was a blessed man and had the resources to meet their needs. Far too often, we receive a blessing from the Lord and our first thought is, “How am I going to spend this on myself?” What our first thought should be is, “Lord, how can I use this to be a blessing and glorify You?” “Lord, was this meant for me or am I to use this to bless someone else?” Proverbs 11:25-26 says, “The generous soul will be made rich, and he who waters will also be watered himself. 26 The people will curse him who withholds grain, but blessings will be on the head of him who sells it.” 2 Corinthians 9:6-8 also says, “But this I say: He who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and he who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. 7 So let each one give as he purposes in his heart, not grudgingly or of necessity; for God loves a cheerful giver. 8 And God is able to make all grace abound toward you, that you, always having all sufficiency in all things, may have an abundance for every good work.” As born again believers we must be available to be used by God to be a channel of blessings. Philippians 2:4 clearly states, “Let each of you look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interests of others.” Doing good to others and sharing is a form of life worship as stated in Hebrews 13:15-16, “Therefore by Him let us continually offer the sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to His name. 16 But do not forget to do good and to share, for with such sacrifices God is well pleased.” God will certainly provide for all our needs. In some instances He may choose to bless us beyond what we deserve or imagine, but we are not meant to hoard our blessings, but be ready to share those blessings with others as the Lord leads and directs. What we will discover is that the more we bless others with what we have, the more the Lord will provide for us to keep the flow of blessings going forward. I want to stop here and caution us at this point and remind us of this one thing…God knows our hearts and knows the genuineness of why we give. We will never be able to twist God’s arm into pouring blessings into our lives by giving with the intention to get something back from the Lord. Our attitude in giving should be that we are giving because we know it is God’s will for us, expecting nothing in return. Our blessing may not always come in the form of material things. So if we are going to give under some false “name it claim it” or “prosperity” pretense, then it is better we keep it to ourselves until we can give it unselfishly and with no expectation of God giving us material gain. God will bless whom He chooses and gives us the free will to be a blessing for His glory. Let us avoid, at all cost, being a Nabal in our giving. Instead, let us be a people who recognize that all we have belongs to the Lord, and He gives to us so that we can be His channels of blessings, if He so chooses.
Today, God extends an invitation to you to accept His free gift of salvation (Rom 6:23). Will you accept it? Anyone who calls on Jesus, by faith, in repentance, confessing your sins, will receive eternal life. Do not put off calling on Him, and receive Him and His free gift of salvation today (Rom 10:13).
No comments:
Post a Comment