How big is your God? Do you believe He is able to meet
your deepest needs? Help you overcome your past?
Strengthen you to face today’s challenges?
Unfortunately, for too many of us, our God is too small.
The goal of this series is to help you rediscover the God
of the Bible. Learn what the Bible has to say about the
character of God and fall in love with the One who reigns
supreme over heaven and earth.
Have you noticed that the word blessing is slowly going
away from our modern vocabulary and has kind of gone out
of favor for
a more secular word— luck? You can still hear it
occasionally in certain context like when someone
sneezes, or after someone has done a good deed, but it is
often little more than a kind farewell. Some greeting
card messages about having a "blessed Christmas" or
"blessed birthday", echo with a nostalgic ring to them.
Even today's believers who regard the word as having any
real meaning to it rarely use it except on a special
occasion.
Today Pastor Rick shares a simple message about the
blessings of God. God is blessed by your tithe as an
expression of your love and obedience to Him. The tithe
is God’s property that we are required to return to
Him; however an “offering” is that which we
give voluntarily out of our own property after the tithe
has been given. As we give our tithes, and give offerings
above our tithe to God, He will continue to bless us and
multiply our return as we worship in obedience to His
commands.
“Remember this: Whoever sows sparingly will also
reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also
reap generously. Each person should give what they have
decided in their heart to give, not reluctantly or under
compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.” 2
Corinthians 9:6-7 NIV
I am learning that no matter where you and I find our
self in life, we can learn to give thanks to God. There
have been days in my own life as I’m sure yours,
that I have wondered what God was doing, why I was in the
position I was in. There have been days in my life where
I have certainly questioned God and wondered if He was
sure He knew what He was doing. Perhaps I could do it
better on my own. What I am learning is that people in
Scripture, people in history, people in my present life
had it bad, too, and they all found a way to understand
the will of the Lord. Here is a favorite passage about
knowing God’s will:
Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the will
of the Lord is. Ephesians 5.17
We must understand that God who has redeemed us will
direct our steps. There are times in our life when it
seems like we wander from wilderness to wilderness, not
really knowing where we are going or where God is leading
us. There are times in our life that God must bring us to
the edge of despair before He can give us hope for the
future. There are times in our life that God must bring
us to the edge of hunger before He can fill us. There are
times in our life that God must bring us to the edge of
desperate thirst before He can pour His spirit on us. We
may not think that God has been directing our steps but
it has been His desire to birth within us a hunger and a
thirst for His satisfaction; for His goodness. There is
nothing in this world that can ever truly satisfy the
spirit within us but God our Creator. Perhaps it’s
time that we start thanking God for our wilderness
experiences. Maybe we should start thanking God for the
hunger and the thirst that He has so desperately tried to
create within us.
Source:
http://healingchoice.org
What is blind trust? Good question. Blind trust is when
you put your total, and I mean TOTAL, FULL, ALL,
EVERYTHING trust in God. But what most of us do is we
give the problem to God for a little while (or only give
certain parts of the problem to Him - hanging onto parts
ourselves!), and then when things don't go the way we
think they should, we run and get our problem back! And,
when we do this, God CANNOT work! Maybe what we want
isn't coming as soon as we think it should. Or things are
not going the way we hoped. Or we try to help God
along-boy, what a mess!!
Asking God for something is like using a credit card:
When we ask for something, we "give Him the card". As
long as He has it, He can work. But when we "take it
back,” for whatever reason, He has to stop working
and wait for the "card" back. And when we try to help God
out, we wind up with the "card stuck in the machine"-and
nothing gets done until we get our hands out and let God
work! But now he has to fix the "mess" we made before He
can start!
Blind trust is like a horse in a burning building. First
you must cover the horse's eyes before you can lead him
out. Sometimes God doesn't explain what's happening to us
or where He is leading us-When He does this, we are to
blindly trust that HE knows what He's doing! If He were
to explain it to us, it might scare us (just like the
fire would scare the horse!) and we wouldn't follow His
sure leading.
God loves us and wants to help us with ALL our problems.
All we have to do is LET Him! Even the little ones matter
to Him-He wants to help! And we know that God is all
power and all knowledge-So stop and think: How much
better off we would be if we put our TOTAL trust in God
and let Him do for us what HE knows is best!
A true account: A middle aged man named Paul received an
automobile from his brother as a Christmas present. On
Christmas Eve when Paul came out of his office, a young
boy was walking around the shiny new car, admiring it.
"Is this your car, Mister?" he asked.
Paul nodded. "My brother gave it to me for Christmas."
The boy was astounded. "You mean your brother gave it to
you and it didn't cost you nothing? Boy, I wish..." He
hesitated.
Of course Paul knew what he was going to wish for. He was
going to wish he had a brother like that. But what the
lad said jarred Paul all the way down to his heels. "I
wish," the boy went on, "that I could be a brother like
that." Paul looked at the boy in astonishment, and then
impulsively he added, "Would you like to take a ride in
my automobile?" "Oh yes, I'd love that."
After a short ride, the boy turned and with his eyes
aglow, said, "Mister, would you mind driving in front on
my house?" Paul smiled a little. He thought he knew what
the lad wanted. He wanted to show his neighbors that he
could ride home in a big automobile. But Paul was wrong
again.
"Will you stop where those two steps are?" the boy asked.
He ran up the steps. Then in a little while Paul heard
him coming back, but he was not coming fast. He was
carrying his little crippled brother. He sat him down on
the bottom step, then sort of squeezed up against him and
pointed to the car.
"There she is, Buddy, just like I told you upstairs. His
brother gave it to him for Christmas and it didn't cost
him a cent. And some day I'm gonna give you one just like
it... then you can see for yourself all the pretty things
in the Christmas windows that I've been trying to tell
you about."
Paul got out and lifted the lad to the front seat of his
car. The shingled-eyed older brother climbed in beside
him and the three of them began a memorable holiday ride.
That Christmas Eve, Paul learned what Jesus meant when he
had said, "It's more blessed to give...."