Monday 9 October 2017

Today Reminder (Generosity) – 09 October 2017



A reminder for today
Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house, and prove me now herewith, saith the LORD of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it. (Malachi 3:10 KJV)

Bring all the tithes (the tenth) into the storehouse, so that there may be food in My house, and test Me now in this,” says the Lord of hosts, “if I will not open for you the windows of heaven and pour out for you [so great] a blessing until there is no more room to receive it. 

How are you, my friend? I thought I will add this passage as it is in the amplified Bible, because it is important that you see what God means when He says prove me now herewith. God challenges us to prove that He means what He says. He is waiting to do business with us, whenever we’re ready. He promises to open the windows of heaven and pour out blessing until we can’t contain it all. The only delay is on our part. As soon as we trust Him by taking the jump, He will show us that there are many more blessings to enjoy than we had ever imagined. God says, “I dare you to obey Me by giving properly.” The question is, are you willing to take God up on His dare?

Generosity is our main theme this month in my Church and it is the word mostly used in the new testament. The word "Give" appears 921 times in the Bible, almost as many times as "Faith" (270), "Hope" (165), and "Love" (541) added together. Giving is an expression of faith, hope, and love.

Normally, God does not invite His people to test Him. In fact, Scripture contains some strong rebukes in situations where God’s people have put Him to the test. In Malachi 3:15, God rebukes the “doers of wickedness” who put Him to the test. In Psalm 95:8-11, which refers to the generation that died in the wilderness, God warns His people not to imitate them. He says, “your fathers tested Me, they tried Me, though they had seen My work. For forty years I loathed that generation….” It sounds like risky business to put God to the test!

But here, God throws down the challenge. He dares us to test Him to see whether or not His promise is true. When God dares us to test Him, we would be sinning to refuse (see Isa. 7:10-16).

Up-front giving is risky because it requires faith. God’s dare exposes our lack of faith. Malachi was preaching to comfortable, cultural believers, but they weren’t living on the cutting edge of trusting God. Not only that, but they were grumbling against God because their circumstances weren’t as pleasant as they had hoped. The many promises about a glorious future for Israel had not come true. Israel was still under foreign domination. The crops weren’t all that great. So, they were grumbling. Whenever we grumble about our circumstances, we’re really grumbling against the God who ordains and controls our circumstances. They were blaming God for not blessing them, but God puts the blame where it belongs: “You haven’t trusted Me by giving as you should. Test Me by bringing the whole tithe into the storehouse, and see if I don’t bless you until you can’t hold any more.”

So, if you’re holding back on giving until the Lord blesses you, you’ve got it backwards. Give generously, by faith, off the top, and God will bless you. We are called to walk by faith. Giving what you can comfortably afford after you’ve bought everything you think you need isn’t giving by faith.

Therefore, here is God’s challenge: Trust Him and give in faith and you will be blessed abundantly. 

Lord, we accept your challenge and we will trust you completely by giving first as we wait upon your blessings. In Jesus name.

Have an awesome day, dear friend of Jesus. 

Cheers

The truth about forgiveness

What is forgiveness? Oxford says it is the action or process of forgiving or being forgiven. But what is forgiveness actually? It is the rel...