God tells us if we go about faith in small ways, our returns will be small. But if we go about faith in big ways the harvest will be huge – not only in our lives, but in the lives of others. But whatever you choose to invest whether it’s your time, your heart, your resources, whatever, God calls you and me to do so with a cheerful heart. You choose to do it, because you want to, not because you have to!
When I think of the wisdom and scope of God’s plan, I fall to my knees and pray to the Father, the Creator of everything in heaven and on earth. I pray that from his glorious, unlimited resources he will give you mighty inner strength through his Holy Spirit. And I pray that Christ will be more and more at home in your hearts as you trust in him. May your roots go down deep into the soil of God’s marvelous love. And may you have the power to understand, as all God’s people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love really is. May you experience the love of Christ, though it is so great you will never fully understand it.
Many of us in the business and professional world are accustomed to relying on a variety of resources: banks; key staff members; well-conceived goals; strategic plans; experience and expertise; personal finances. We pride ourselves at “pulling ourselves up by our own bootstraps.” Yet at times we must concede even our best efforts – and all of the resources we can muster – are not enough to overcome the obstacles we confront. At times like these, I have often remembered Jesus’ admonition: “Apart from Me, you can do nothing” (John 15:5).
The other day I was reviewing the past year. I wrote down a list of things that had occurred this year in my personal and business life. My mindset had been a bit of “what a tough year” and these are tough times at lots of levels. There have been difficulties!
“I was unsure of how to go about this, and felt totally inadequate . . . But . . . God’s Spirit and God’s power did it, which made it clear that your life and faith is a response to God’s power, not some fancy mental or emotional footwork by me or anyone else.” – 1 Corinthians 2:2-5 (The Message)
We all get into situations that we feel unprepared for, too tired to do, totally unfocused to accomplish, or a number of other reasons we could fail at a task that is set before us. When we find ourselves in a situation like that we have two choices. We can either dig deep and rely on our own strength and wisdom or we can submit to God our inadequacies and weaknesses and rely on the Holy Spirit.
“Reverence for the Lord gives a man deep strength; his children have a place of refuge and security.” – Proverbs 14:26
While some days are 72 degrees and sunny, most of us experience some pretty severe storms in life, storms that threaten to wash us away. Things don’t always go as planned. And in those tough times we need a place of shelter. We need a place of protection, stability, security.
“Zacchaeus stood there and said to the Lord, `Look, half of my possessions, Lord, I will give to the poor; and if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I will pay back four times as much.’ Then Jesus said to him, `Today salvation has come to this house, because he too is a son of Abraham. For the Son of Man came to seek out and to save the lost.'” – Luke 19: 8-10 (NRSV)
If we merely give out of our excess we don’t give God the opportunity to prove his faithfulness. That’s like lifting a very light weight. It won’t strengthen your muscles. But when we give sacrificially, when we give to the point of it hurting a bit, we exercise our faith – we learn to trust in God by giving him a chance to prove himself trustworthy.
As he looked up, Jesus saw the rich putting their gifts into the temple treasury. He also saw a poor widow put in two very small copper coins. “I tell you the truth,” he said, “this poor widow has put in more than all the others. All these people gave their gifts out of their wealth; but she out of her poverty put in all she had to live on.” – Luke 21:1-4
Far too many Christians imagine that they’ll be more generous if and when they become rich, but the amount of money we have doesn’t matter. Generosity has more to do with the proportion we give than it does with the actual amount we give…no matter how much we actually own
