Acts 20:35
“...‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’”
Many of us in the month of January would have made our prayer requests for the year, some of us may have believed for an unborn child, life partners that we haven’t met yet, a new job, a new car, new house. I know that I did. And praise be to God that many of the things I placed on my prayer request have come to pass. The scripture that I stand on continually is “For assuredly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, “Be removed and be cast into the sea, and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that those things he says will be done, he will have whatever he says.Therefore I say to you, whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you will have them.” -Mark 11:23-24 But my question to you today is when was the last time you believed, I mean really used your faith for someone else’s dream to be fulfilled? Growing up my grandmother would always drum it into my head “treat others how you would treat yourself” and “if you can’t do anything good don’t do it at all”. As single guys and gals we have a lot of things ahead of us to look forward to! Meeting that special someone, getting married, buying our first house, having babies, but how many of us sow for those things now?
When we see a married woman in church expecting a baby, our first response should be to make a mental note to save for the next few months and contribute something toward that baby and get excited about the thought of giving. For example a good friend of mine is getting married this year, I prayed and asked God what He would have me give as a seed into their marriage. God told me the amount. It was a large amount, an amount that I didn’t have at the time. So what did I have to do? I had to use my faith. So after one of Pastor Douglas’ messages on “Faith that speaks” I wrote down my petition asking God to give me the amount he had told me to give. I also wrote how much I would like to give in tithe and offering I knew that I wanted my friend to be able to have the money cleared into her account BEFORE her wedding day, so I wrote down the date I would need it by. Sure enough within a week a cheque arrived in the post for the amount I had believed God for, it was the most joyous moment to be able to hand over that cheque to my friend knowing that God had been able to use me as a tool to bless someone else. And I know that because I was faithful with the little next time God will entrust me to be a blessing to more people.
As single guys and gals we need to start getting excited about being a blessing to others, so when there is a wedding, a baby about to be born, a single mother, an elderly person, and a widow, we should be the first ones putting our hands to the plough. Matthew 6:33 tells us that if we seek first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness all these things will be added to us. What is the kingdom of God? God’s heart is for His people, we are supposed to be His hands, His mouth, His feet, we are supposed to show Jesus to people. His Word says that as we do this “all these things will be added to us”. Those “things” are your hearts desires. As you pray and believe for others God will place it on someone else’s heart to bless you. Can you imagine if we all caught this? Can you imagine if all of us made this a principle by which we live? What a different church and world we would have!
So pray this week and ask God to show you who you can be a blessing to and see the joy that comes from giving instead of receiving.
Ciao till next time