Day 28...Give

Day 28         Give

 

I am recovering this morning from the soreness of teaching some really animated music selections to some even more energetic youngsters at bible school this week.  The songs came complete with motions and dance steps…reminding me of just how old this body has gotten….another miracle of God that I can do all things through him who strengthens me!  And as I reflect on this week of giving to my church the time to work with these youngsters…I see so clearly that  nothing helps me to work through the loss better than this act of giving.  Giving helps me to focus on other people and yield to God in a way that blesses my soul…giving helps me yield my loss to God. 

We are called to give thanks, to give honor and praise to God, and we are also called to give of ourselves…like the great church of Macedonia.  An impoverished church who managed to give even what little God blessed them with.

 

2 Corinthians 8

¹Moreover, brethren, we do you to wit of the grace of God bestowed on the churches of Macedonia;

²How that in a great trial of affliction the abundance of their joy and their deep poverty abounded unto the riches of their liberality.

³For to their power, I bear record, yea, and beyond their power they were willing of themselves;

⁴Praying us with much intreaty that we would receive the gift, and take upon us the fellowship of the ministering to the saints.

⁵And this they did, not as we hoped, but first gave their own selves to the Lord, and unto us by the will of God.

⁶Insomuch that we desired Titus, that as he had begun, so he would also finish in you the same grace also.

⁷Therefore, as ye abound in every thing, in faith, and utterance, and knowledge, and in all diligence, and in your love to us, see that ye abound in this grace also.

⁸I speak not by commandment, but by occasion of the forwardness of others, and to prove the sincerity of your love.

⁹For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that ye through his poverty might be rich.

¹⁰And herein I give my advice: for this is expedient for you, who have begun before, not only to do, but also to be forward a year ago.

¹¹Now therefore perform the doing of it; that as there was a readiness to will, so there may be a performance also out of that which ye have.

¹²For if there be first a willing mind, it is accepted according to that a man hath, and not according to that he hath not.

¹³For I mean not that other men be eased, and ye burdened:

¹⁴But by an equality, that now at this time your abundance may be a supply for their want, that their abundance also may be a supply for your want: that there may be equality:

¹⁵As it is written, He that had gathered much had nothing over; and he that had gathered little had no lack.

Wow…what a message is hidden in this passage…even when we ‘think’ we have nothing….we still have our time….our love…our ability to do things for others.  God gave us an amazing capacity to love others.  Giving proves to our soul that we still have something to give…even when we think we have lost one of the most important things in our lives.  This pain…this sacrifice we have been forced to make…will never match the sacrifice God made for us when he gave his son to die or our sins.

When we give…we reap joy! When we give…God will pour out his blessings on our efforts to rebuild the missing pieces of the life we knew with our beloved.  Even Job in all his sorrow…understood…. He craved for the time when God would bless his life through giving.

Job 29

¹Moreover Job continued his parable, and said,

²Oh that I were as in months past, as in the days when God preserved me;

³When his candle shined upon my head, and when by his light I walked through darkness;

⁴As I was in the days of my youth, when the secret of God was upon my tabernacle;

⁵When the Almighty was yet with me, when my children were about me;

⁶When I washed my steps with butter, and the rock poured me out rivers of oil;

⁷When I went out to the gate through the city, when I prepared my seat in the street!

⁸The young men saw me, and hid themselves: and the aged arose, and stood up.

⁹The princes refrained talking, and laid their hand on their mouth.

¹⁰The nobles held their peace, and their tongue cleaved to the roof of their mouth.

¹¹When the ear heard me, then it blessed me; and when the eye saw me, it gave witness to me:

¹²Because I delivered the poor that cried, and the fatherless, and him that had none to help him.

¹³The blessing of him that was ready to perish came upon me: and I caused the widow's heart to sing for joy.

¹⁴I put on righteousness, and it clothed me: my judgment was as a robe and a diadem.

¹⁵I was eyes to the blind, and feet was I to the lame.

¹⁶I was a father to the poor: and the cause which I knew not I searched out.

¹⁷And I brake the jaws of the wicked, and plucked the spoil out of his teeth.

¹⁸Then I said, I shall die in my nest, and I shall multiply my days as the sand.

¹⁹My root was spread out by the waters, and the dew lay all night upon my branch.

²⁰My glory was fresh in me, and my bow was renewed in my hand.

²¹Unto me men gave ear, and waited, and kept silence at my counsel.

²²After my words they spake not again; and my speech dropped upon them.

²³And they waited for me as for the rain; and they opened their mouth wide as for the latter rain.

²⁴If I laughed on them, they believed it not; and the light of my countenance they cast not down.

²⁵I chose out their way, and sat chief, and dwelt as a king in the army, as one that comforteth the mourners.

As the great writer of Acts recorded for us these simple words in Acts 20:35, “³I have shewed you all things, how that so labouring ye ought to support the weak, and to remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he said, It is more blessed to give than to receive. We should all do well to give more…to pour ourselves into service for the Lord brings about blessings untold. 

I will work willingly…even joyfully as I sing with those kids tonight.  The pain and loneliness will be replaced with new blessings and laughter from the mouths of children…as they celebrate and sing to the Lord.  I will sing a new song to the lord and thank him for the ability to still love…in spite of my loss.