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And God will generously provide all you need. Then you will always have everything you need and plenty left over to share with others. 2 Corinthians 9:8
Have you ever been in a situation where you had an opportunity to give but just didn’t do it? You were asked to donate to a worthy cause and while you could afford it, just didn’t do it?
You were asked to help with a church or community event and even though you had the time, the invitation of your couch and TV was more compelling
A group of friends invite you to a cookout but your grass needed mowing (which you never got around to doing anyway).
In 2 Corinthians 9:8, the Apostle Paul is writing regarding a financial gift the Corinthian church had committed to. He reminds them that while giving financially can be hard at times, the reward of knowing you are helping the Kingdom of God and the Body of Christ is not without reward.
While Paul is talking money here, there is a valuable principle we can sure in other areas of life. The more we give of our time, our gifts and yes, our money, the more we can see God work.
I’m not talking prosperity gospel here, I’m not saying give (out of duty) and you’ll get an unexpected check in the mail. I’ve found that the more I give of my time, the more time I tend to have. The more I use my gifts, the more enjoyment I get from seeing others encouraged.
I’ve started a practice lately that may seem rather odd or even self-serving. When time allows, I do much of my writing/studying at a local coffee shop. More often than not, someone I know will ‘stop by’ my table and chat. I’ve been able to minister and encourage in ways that I never could have sitting in my home office.
We have more than we need to accomplish God’s will for our lives. A will that we are told in Romans and elsewhere is good, pleasing and perfect. Sometimes it’s the little things we can do that make a big difference.
Use the overabundance of resources God has freely given you to give freely to others.
For the law was given through Moses, but God’s unfailing love and faithfulness came through Jesus Christ. John 1:17
When God gave Moses the law, it was to show us as humans, the standards that we would need to keep to be holy and perfect before God.
There was no wavering in the law. There was no giving and taking. The standard was set, and if we did not meet the standard, we would be separated from God in this life and the next.
We would be without hope. We would never be in relationship with him.
While the law showed us God‘s holiness and standards, Jesus shows us God‘s character.
It’s almost as if God gave us the law to say here’s what I expect, and you will never be able to match that! Then he sent Jesus to say, here’s a better way.
His purpose was never to put us down. his purpose was never to destroy us. His purpose was never to make us struggle with our own thoughts and actions.
His purpose, was always to draw us closer to him. his purpose was always to give us a fulfillment and peace that nothing else could give us.
In Jesus, he gave us what we were never worthy of so that we could be what we could never achieve.
For I am the least of all the apostles. In fact, I’m not even worthy to be called an apostle after the way I persecuted God’s church. 1 Corinthians 15:9
“I don’t deserve this.”
How many times do we hear that said, or maybe we’ve said that after we’ve been criticized or wrongfully accused. Maybe we’ve been judged unfairly for not meeting the expectations of others. Then there are the times when people play the comparison game, “Not bad, but sally does it better.”
Life is hard when it never seems like we can catch a break. If there was anyone who deserved to be scrutinized, the Apostle Paul was one.
He was a Pharisee, and likely had some part in the decision to murder Jesus. He gleefully watched the stoning of Stephen after Jesus’ resurrection and ascension. He celebrated the persecution, imprisonment and physical beating each follower of ‘The Way’ received.
After his conversion to Jesus, Paul was called to preach this same Jesus that he’d ridiculed earlier. There were many who doubted him, right up until the day he died. Among other things, he was beaten, jailed, stoned and left for dead, and shipwrecked.
Paul could have said, ‘I don’t deserve all this! I’m the Apostle Paul after all. I was called by Jesus Himself. I’m important.” But he didn’t.
Instead Paul counted himself of being unworthy of any ministry at all because of his former life. The mistreatment he endured was nothing compared to what Jesus endured.
Jesus was completely innocent of any sin, yet rejected, abused and murdered. Elsewhere Paul says he would gladly go through abuse because of what Jesus endured for him.
None of us deserve to be mistreated on the physical plain, yet compared to God’s Holy standards, we all deserve so much more. We deserve death, but Jesus gives us life. We deserve punishment for our sins, but Jesus gives us forgiveness. We deserve poverty, Jesus provides from heavens storehouses.
I don’t deserve the abuse I get, but in reality, I deserve so much more! Thank you Jesus for sparing me from what I truly deserve.
Last of all, as though I had been born at the wrong time, I also saw him. 1 Corinthians 15:8
We can’t be sure, but it’s very likely that the man we know as the Apostle Paul at least knew ABOUT Jesus while he ministered on earth.
Saul, as he was known before his conversion, was a high ranking Pharisee and would have heard about this ‘teacher from Galilee. He would have heard about the miracles. He could have heard about His teachings. He may have even been involved in planning his death!
One might ask, how could someone see so many good things and still reject Jesus? How could one see the miracles and still not believe? How could one see the life changes and still doubt?
Yet, that was Saul’s story until that fateful day on a road to Damascus. Saul was enjoying the prestige and power he had over these ‘followers of the way’ these believers in Jesus. He spewed hate, anger and judgment. He basked in the glory of his violence.
Then he saw Jesus in a new way and everything changed. There are still many who know ABOUT Jesus. They’ve heard the stories. They’ve seen the life change. Yet they have yet to ‘see’ Jesus.
There are even those of us who have walked with Jesus for years that have a tendency to grow so content with Him that we fail to live in the power of His Spirit living within us.
May we each see Jesus for who He is in all His power and majesty. May we never grow apathetic in our worship of Him. May we live in such a way that others see Jesus because of how we interact with them.
The Lord is good to those who depend on him, to those who search for him. Lamentations 3:25
One of the hardest times in life, is when people that we trust and rely on, fail us. It happens all the time.
Sometimes people fail us because we have failed to meet their expectations.
Sometimes people leave our relationship with them because we just aren’t that important.
Sometimes, while we rely on them, they are far too involved in their own lives to realize the impact they’ve had in our lives. As a result, they leave us with a huge hole in our hearts.
God isn’t like that. Earlier, Jeremiah says that God’s love and mercy is new every day. He reminds us that when others fail us, God never will.
Sometimes we think God fails us because he doesn’t do what we would like him to do. When that happens, in reality, the god that has failed us has been a god of our own creation, not the God of creation.
In the dark times of life, when it seems everyone else has abandoned us, keep searching for God.
Keep searching for the one who has promised to love us new every day.
Yesterday‘s failures are lessons learned.
Tomorrow’s dreams are hopes yet to come.
But today? Today is the day God has for us to accomplish what he calls us to do.
Mike Fisk & Built with Grace 