I heard an interesting comment the other night. Mike Kellogg, who hosts a radio program on a local radio station (possibly syndicated on many radio stations, I’m not sure), asked those of us in the listening audience to imagine taking a package to an overnight delivery service, with an address for the package to be delivered to. Now, suppose that after a few days, you found out that the package never got delivered. So, you go back to the delivery service, and find the owner of the service using the item that you paid him to deliver. When you object, his defense is, “If you didn’t want me to have it, then you shouldn’t have given it to me.”
Mike Kellogg went on to make the point that, sometimes God gives us things for us to use, but a lot of times He gives us things for other people. Sometimes we get confused as far as what is for us, and what is for somebody else. I don’t imagine that God takes it too kindly when we keep something that He intended for us to give away. I’m sure that He gives us clear instructions, but sometimes we don’t listen very well, especially when the instructions involve giving away things that we really want for ourselves. It can be tough to part with something that one really wants to keep, so it’s easy to spiritually stick one’s fingers in one’s ears if one is afraid of hearing that one has to give it away.
My pastor is fond of saying that we are supposed to be conduits and not reservoirs. The Bible says that living water should flow from us. Here’s the thing, though, if we get blessed by God, and we spread those blessings to those around us, some of those around us will come to know Christ as we know Him, and God will bless us more, so that we can bless those around us more, so that… You get the idea. If we keep passing along the gifts that God gives us to give to others, He will keep giving us more gifts, and as we give things away, we will get blessed. Now, this doesn’t necessarily mean cash. God knows that you have a rent payment, or a mortgage payment, and a light bill, and a gas bill, and you have other bills. Sometimes He will ask you to step out on faith and give, say, your rent money away, without giving you indication as to how you are going to pay your rent. I would strongly recommend a fleece test in such an instance (if you aren’t familiar with the term ‘fleece test,’ read Judges 6:36-40, Gideon wanted to be sure of God’s will, so he instituted a fleece test), if only because so many people have become homeless, or had to declare bankruptcy, because they were just so sure that God wanted them to give away their rent money (it particularly irks me when I hear of people that do that because the preacher on the radio or on TV told them that’s what God wanted them to do, but that’s a whole ‘nother subject), and, really, that wasn’t part of His plan. Sometimes, it’s enough just to spend time with someone who is in mourning (or in celebration), to buy lunch for someone who is hungry, to pray for someone whose health is in jeopardy, or to invite someone to church.
People walk around with needs. God sees their needs, and He wants us to deal with those needs. Unfortunately, human nature being what it is, people have a bad tendency to try to hide their needs (pride and embarrassment sets in, and they don’t want people to know that they aren’t self-sufficient—NEWS FLASH: NONE of us are self-sufficient, God didn’t make us that way). If we spend some time in prayer, and allow God to show us the needs of those around us, and allow Him to work through us to meet those needs, then maybe we can reach them.
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