"God can pour on blessings in astonishing ways so that you're ready for anything and everything, more than just ready to do what needs to be done." (2 Corinthians 9:8, The Message)
I've become very aware through the years that God has been blessing my life. Most of the time I hadn't seen it or counted it, but I know that it's been there, God's blessings, in the form of provisions: jobs, money, help, shelter, transportation, etc. God has given me way more than I deserved or even needed.
The unfortunate part is that as I have received many times I have kept as my own and found ways to spend or celebrate what God had sent my way. Sure I had been generous with my own family, but I hadn't considered the opportunity of continuing that blessing by giving away some of what God had given me. Even though I had been growing in my faith, I forgot a simple understanding from scripture...
"This most generous God who gives seed to the farmer that becomes bread for your meals is
more than extravagant with you. He gives you something you can then give away, which grows into full-formed lives, robust in God, wealthy in every way, so that you can be generous in every way, producing with us great praise to God." (2 Corinthians 9:10-11, The Message)
Let me explain...
...The picture above is of the Dead Sea. It is a beautiful body of water that is on the great rift vally between Israel and Jordan, along the mountains of Moab (to the East). It has two main sources in the Jordan River and whatever rains filter down through the mountain wadis (streams). There are also some fresh and mineral springs that flow out of the ground and end up in the Dead Sea. But there is an interesting fact about this body of water that I didn't realize.
It receives, but never gives away.
Isn't that remarkable? I knew that nothing could live in this water because of its high concentration of minerals but I didn't realize why they were there. It's quite simple, water flows in, but water doesn't flow out. The dead sea is the lowest place on earth so it's impossible for water to escape by any way but evaporation, which leaves the mineral concentrations to grow.
You get the idea: it keeps what it can, never gives away and it's dead.
So, if we only receive and keep but never give away, we miss something, God's blessings through our generosity, and what does generosity bring? Paul said it, "full-formed lives." It is a part of being the complete creature God originally intended. God wants us to be generous, giving not only a tithe (10%) through the church but even more (an offering beyond the tithe) to those in need around us, and there are plenty of them.
Learning generosity and practicing it brings something beautiful, praise to God. It's not for our glory, but Gods. The same fresh, crisp, mountain spring water from Mount Hermon that becomes the Jordan River is the water that becomes the Dead Sea. One produces life, the other doesn't, yet it's the same water. How God's blessings flow make all the difference...
...they either flow in or flow through, but they always flow.
Peace ><>
pc
1 comment:
which direction do the blessings flow in my life? Somedays it is like the tide, the blessings come in but then perhaps I lose perspective and they recede without my total awareness.
I pray that God keeps me focused when I am "inside" the blessing so that when my evening comes and the return of the day begins, I will be laced in their memories. And that God will keep me ready to share with those I meet during my day, as the sun rises.
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