God Loves a Cheerful Giver

 
^{Corinthians 9:6-11 MSG
6-7} Remember: A stingy planter gets a stingy crop; a lavish planter gets a lavish crop. I want each of you to take plenty of time to think it over, and make up your own mind what you will give. That will protect you against sob stories and arm-twisting. God loves it when the giver delights in the giving.
^8-11 God can pour on the blessings in astonishing ways so that you’re ready for anything and everything, more than just ready to do what needs to be done. As one psalmist puts it, He throws caution to the winds, giving to the needy in reckless abandon. His right-living, right-giving ways never run out, never wear out. This most generous God who gives seed to the farmer that becomes bread for your meals is more than extravagant with you. He gives you something you can then give away, which grows into full-formed lives, robust in God, wealthy in every way, so that you can be generous in every way, producing with us great praise to God.

This morning as I was REFRESHED in the Word of God, I was reminded of the GIVING principle that brings forth blessings and favor into our lives. We can't EXPECT to get without GIVING! It's a spiritual and natural law. If we are desiring and expecting something in our lives that we have not been sowing towards, how can we even EXPECT to get a harvest in that area???  God does not need our giving...WE DO! He already owns it all anyway, and He is just TESTING our HEARTS to see if He can TRUST us with what He has GIVEN us, so that He can later get MORE to us for us to BLESS OTHERS!

The sowing and reaping principle applies to EVERY AREA of our lives! If we SOW mercy, we will receive mercy....if we SOW love, we will RECEIVE love...if we sow generously, we receive generously....just as if  we SOW SPARINGLY, we RECEIVE SPARINGLY... no matter what it is! Giving grudgely and with a poor attitude is just as important as our giving. We can sometimes believe that just because we don't think a person needs or deserves our giving that we are somehow excluded from giving. UNTRUE! God wants a WILLING and CHEERFUL GIVER who is OBEDIENT to His Leading!

Many of us are needing FINANCIAL HARVEST for our households, but we have been reluctant or have not GIVEN/SOWN to get a harvest. It may not actually be money that God is asking you GIVE. Are you giving to that family member who is going through hard times but because you think the person has been irresponsible you won't GIVE even though they are in need? Or you know you have tons of things that you no longer need or us but something in you can't part with them because of the money you have spent or whatever special sentiment you hold to them? Or maybe there is a cause that is dear to your HEART that you aren't ready to GIVE your full commitment to because of the TIME it would require?

God is no respecter of persons and He has MORE than enough to GIVE You everything you need along with anything that you GIVE away for His Glory. Remember we can NEVER OUT GIVE GOD! The only thing is it requires a WILLING and CHEERFUL HEART to GIVE/sow seed towards it to spring up a GOOD HARVEST from it!

God's Blessings!

"I have not gone back from the commandment of His lips; I have esteemed and treasured the words of His mouth more than my necessary food." (Job 23:12)

I recently read a statement in a life changing read about Spiritual Discernment, by Roberts Liardon..."The love of God is unconditional, but His blessings aren't!" When I read it RANG SO TRUE in my spirit that I began to realize why SO MANY CHRISTIANS are living beneath God's INTENDED Life...We AREN'T AWARE of the conditions to RECEIVE BLESSINGS or we AREN'T FOLLOWING them. Either way we are LIVING with the MOUNTAIN defeating us instead of us MOVING the MOUNTAIN with the tools God has given us....HIS WORD!!!

So many are TURNED OFF by the WORD of God...(BIG TRICK of the enemy by the way)...to KEEP YOU FROM the BLESSINGS of God...and the bad thing about it is...CHRISTIANS are FALLING for it too!!! We have what we need to be VICTORIOUS in this life, we just AREN'T UTILIZING it for what it was made to do...MOVE MOUNTAINS in our lives and the lives of others by the FAITH that ONLY COMES BY WAY OF THE WORD OF GOD!!!

So I ask you...How MUCH WORD are you getting into your life??? A measly Sunday meal at church is not going to sustain you throughout the week...when YOU ARE STARVING!!! All day long, we are BOMBARDED with all the negative forces around us from the people, music, TV, videos, and whatever else we are ALLOWING into our space to ROB us from a life that is VICTORIOUSLY BLESSED according to God's Standards...all because we AREN'T PUTTING IN THE TIME that is needed to COUNTERACT all of the negative forces surrounding us.

So let me ask you a question, HOW MUCH SPIRITUAL FOOD are you FEEDING yourself each day??? Think about it, the ALL GIVING, ALL LOVING, ALL POWERFUL GOD wants to FILL YOU with MORE of HIM!!! So, why wouldn't you want to FEED on Him??? It's AMAZING to me how we can put so many things before our time with God that can not GIVE us the same Blessings that He can give us...Nothing but PRIDE! Pride that we know better than Him, Pride that we can do it ourselves, Pride that we don't need Him to get everything done...Just plain FOOLISHNESS that the enemy has tricked us into believing and ACTING on this sin.

So what are you going to do about it??? I would recommend and CHALLENGE you put in AT LEAST the same amount of time you put into eating your physical food...for most that's 3x's A DAY...Morning, Afternoon, and Night! Here are the steps I recommend that I have noticed work well for me...

1) You may want to set a dedicated space within your home for your time with the Lord! (This can help in keeping the area holy and sacred for the Lord).
2) You may want to turn on some Praise & Worship Music to awaken the Spirit within you.
3) Be sure to PRAY before you begin your time with reading THE WORD and ask the Spirit to REVEAL to you what He wants you to know during your time together and watch how the WORD will POP OFF the page and prick and speak to your HEART about you and your life situation.
4) You must ALSO be willing to COMMIT TO LISTENING to what is REVEALED to you during this time.
5) Journal your thoughts during your time of LISTENING so that you will have a WRITTEN PLAN of what God has to say to you and what He wants to DO through you.
6) Next, be sure to PRAY for His assistance to do His plan
7) Lastly, get to MOVING Obediently toward God's plan by measurable steps of FAITH (Speaking, Hearing, and BELIEVING the Word of God to you) with action. God will surely BLESS the work of your hands because you have a heart that is diligently seeking Him and willing to do His Plan.

Please don't MISS your moments to be EMPOWERED by God...what better way is there to be EMPOWERED than from the ALL POWERFUL One who is WILLING to GIVE His Gracious Power to YOU if we ask!

Stay in the BLESSINGS Beautiful Ones!