Christian Living
Welcome back! This is the 4th part of this blogpost series.
We have been considering ways God increases us by bringing divine opportunities our way.
It is quite striking for me that from what we have looked at so far, divine opportunities for increase come to us clothed in demand for our time, talent, token or training/skill.
Service makes demand on our time, talent, training or token, but when done selflessly and in an outstanding way, it becomes a springboard to increase.
Receiving an unusual instruction from God is not one of the things you wake up in the morning and ask God for, 🙂 because they are strange and unusual demands on your faith, but when they are acted upon, a bumper harvest of increase and overwhelming supply is untied.
And benevolence demands a disposition or lifestyle of constantly dispersing as an act of kindness to people in need.
Today we look at the last 2 divine opportunities for increase in this blogpost series;
4. Giving an unusual freewill offering to God.
This is closely related to our discussion on receiving and acting on an unusual instruction, but they are not the same. While God gives us an instruction in latter, the former, giving an uncommon freewill offering deals with our choice and voluntary action, only this choice and voluntary action represent strong expressions of faith, love and trust in God.
Can you imagine what the widow in Luke 21: 3-4 was thinking, giving God her last 2 mites? Jesus said, ‘she gave to God her entire livelihood’.
“Truly I say to you, that this poor widow has put in more than all, for all these out of their abundance have put in offerings for God, but she out of her poverty put in all the livelihood that she had.” NKJV.
Christ observed the proportions and portions given.
Can you also imagine why a sinful woman would choose to invest her resources to buy a very costly alabaster flask of fragrant oil, only to lavish it on Jesus’ feet? (Luke 7:37-50).
Jesus noticed the quality of her gift and He also acknowledged the weight of her love.
In 2 Chronicles chapter 1, King Solomon practically pulled down God’s hands of favor with his 1,000 burnt offerings.
A grateful Solomon wanted so desperately to boast of The Lord’s goodness and blessings upon him and his household. One fat burnt offering wasn’t good enough,…. two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, …..100, …200, ….300, ……500, and 1,000 burnt offerings sacrificed!
God was pleased with Solomon’s request for wisdom and He honored it. O
From the foregoing, we can we say that God is the one who ranks an offering as outstanding or not. But as Christians we can influence how God sees our offerings by determining the quality, quantity, proportion, the heart and attitude with which our offerings are given.
As a young Christian, I decided I’d rather let the offering basket go past me than drop ‘a small’ amount in the basket. In fact, there were times when everyone in Church would be required to dance out to the alter to give their offerings. At such times, yours truly would rather sit comfortably in her seat if she considered what’s in her hand too small to give to God. It really didn’t matter who was watching.
God honors us when we honor Him.
Now, apart from putting our offerings in the offering baskets, there are certain groups of persons that I have come to realize that we actually do take advantage of a divine opportunity for increase when we give to them. These people are special to God. Giving to them comes with an added blessing.
We’ll simply list them;
a. Widows
“Pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their trouble, and to keep oneself unspotted from the world.” James 1:27. NKJV.
b. The Poor
“He who has pity on the poor lends to the Lord, and He will pay back what he has given.” Proverbs 19:7. NKJV.
c. Our Under-shepherds and God’s prophets:
I recognize that because of abuse of office so many Christians are becoming weary of giving to so-called ‘men of God’. But the Bible admonishes us to honor those who labor in word and doctrine, that is Under-Shepherds who study hard to teach and communicate God’s word to us.
“Let the elders who rule well be counted worthy of double honor, especially those who labor in the word and doctrine.” 1 Timothy 5:17.
And as Apostle Paul asks;
“if we have sown spiritual things for you, is it a great thing if we reap your material things?” 1 Corinthians 9: 11.
In 1 Kings chapter 17, we see Elijah being emotionally concerned about a widow whose son got sick and died. Elijah invested time and energy to revive this lad to life. This is the same widow that catered for him in famine.
There is an honor that comes with honoring true men of God.
I know a young woman who would often walk into a shop with the intention of purchasing a few beautiful apparel for herself. Sometimes, she’d find one that she thought looked rather too lovely and classy for herself and instead she’d give out to God through her Under-Shepherds. Such gifts always came with a blessing from the receivers. They’d often pray and bless her declaring that God would clothe her with the best things of life. Today, this young woman struggle to explain to people that she doesn’t have a ‘wardrobe manager’. She constantly gets a compliment that her dressing is simple, classy and beautiful. This may not really matter to someone else, but point here is, she’s enjoying the fruits of her seed. You choose what kind of harvest you desire and sow the corresponding seed.
The final divine opportunity for increase we’d consider in this blogpost series is;
5. Divine Connections
And this simply refers to associations and relationships that God sends our way.
As a Christian, I don’t believe in coincidences. My steps are ordered by the Lord. I therefore believe that God sends people my way to bless me (in different ramifications) or for me to bless.
Divine connections may not always translate immediately to money, wealth, etc, sometimes they are building blocks and processes to something bigger. We need to be sensitive to recognize them when we see them.
Thank you for sticking around to the end of this blogpost.
In the concluding part, we’ll look at virtues that help situate us properly for divine increase.
My love always…
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