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In Christ, Mark
In Christ, Mark
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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.
“See, I am doing a new thing! Now
it springs up; do you not perceive it?”
“I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland. The wild animals honor Me, the jackals and the owls, because I provide water in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland, to give drink to My people, My chosen, the people I formed for Myself that they may proclaim My praise.”
“Yet you have not called on Me,
Jacob, you have not wearied yourselves for Me, Israel. You have not brought Me
sheep for burnt offerings, nor honored Me with your sacrifices. I have not
burdened you with grain offerings nor wearied you with demands for incense. You
have not bought any fragrant calamus for Me, or lavished on me the fat of your
sacrifices. But you have burdened Me with your sins and wearied Me with your
offenses.”
Isaiah 43:19-24
This ends this
reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.
You may have heard the old saying, “It
is better to give than receive.” People have been saying it for the ages, many
of which didn’t know it is derived from the Bible. Look at these words from the
Apostle Paul as he bids farewell to the Ephesian elders in Acts, Chapter 20:
“Now I commit you to God and to the word of his grace, which can build
you up and give you an inheritance among all those who are sanctified. I have
not coveted anyone’s silver or gold or clothing. You yourselves know that these
hands of mine have supplied my own needs and the needs of my companions. In
everything I did, I showed you that by this kind of hard work we must help the
weak, remembering the words the Lord Jesus Himself said: ‘It is more blessed to
give than to receive.’ ”
When Paul had finished speaking, he knelt down with all of them and
prayed. Acts 20:32-36
It is more blessed to give than to
receive. The scriptures are clear here and yet we tend to pass up the blessing
of giving too often because we’re stuck in receive mode, particularly when it
comes to our relationship with God and His Son Jesus, our Savior. If you don’t
believe me, think about your prayer life for a minute.
We ask God for almost anything and
everything.
If we are sick or injured and in
need of healing, we turn to the Lord and ask Him to give it to us.
If we are in the midst of some form
of difficulty or hardship, we turn to the Lord and ask Him to rescue us from
the trial and restore our lives to normalcy where we can once again experience
peace.
If someone is threatening us in
some way, we turn to the Lord for protection from our enemies.
If there is any need we might have,
we do not hesitate to turn to the Lord and ask Him to give us whatever is
necessary to meet that need.
Yes, we have God always on speed
dial and expect Him to act immediately on our request, giving us what we
desire. And like so many other instances in our world today, we do not want to
have to wait for the Lord to work on our demands. We need our requests filled
right away much like getting food at a fast food drive through or money from an
ATM. We want and want and want – and we want things to happen when we want them
to. We want everything given to us by God as if we are all entitled to anything
He can give us.
But what about giving back to God?
How eager are we to give of ourselves to Him when He asks us to do something?
I sense this might touch a nerve or
two out there and it should because I think we’re all guilty of expecting so
much from God and less concerned about giving to Him to meet His will which
often includes meeting the needs of others.
This isn’t a new phenomenon for as
you will see in this scripture passage from Isaiah 43, the Israelite people had
not given to God either, at least not what He expected them to give Him. Look
at these words:
“See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive
it?”
“I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland. The wild animals honor Me, the jackals and the owls, because I provide water in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland, to give drink to My people, My chosen, the people I formed for Myself that they may proclaim My praise.”
“Yet you have not called on Me, Jacob, you have not wearied yourselves
for Me, Israel. You have not brought Me sheep for burnt offerings, nor honored Me
with your sacrifices. I have not burdened you with grain offerings nor wearied
you with demands for incense. You have not bought any fragrant calamus for Me, or
lavished on me the fat of your sacrifices. But you have burdened Me with your
sins and wearied Me with your offenses.”
Isaiah 43:19-24
God had done so much for His people
and yet all they could give Him in return was their sinfulness and iniquities. There
were no offerings or sacrifices for His chosen people were too busy offering up
to false gods and idols. Nothing was lavished on God but you can bet the people
were expecting God to respond as soon as they needed something from Him. It’s
little wonder why God became outraged at the behavior of His people and brought
judgment upon them.
Now ask yourself this: Are we any
better today? Are we simply repeating the mistakes of the past by not giving
God our first fruits and yet demanding that He give us His?
Friends, God gave us more than we
deserved and continues to give us more than we could ever deserve. In fact, He
gave us everything when He chose to sacrifice His one and only Son Jesus,
offering Him up as a living sacrifice, the Lamb of God who took away the sins
of the world by bearing them on Calvary’s cross.
Can’t we commit ourselves to give
Him our all in return? Or are we more bent on just giving
God our sins and offenses like the Israelites of old?
Perhaps a good starting place would
be for us to be obedient to these words from Paul from Romans, Chapter 12 that simply
exhort us to:
“Offer your bodies as a living
sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship.”
Romans 12:1-2
Today and every day, won’t you join
me in repeating this simple prayer:
Lord thank You for this day and I
offer myself to You as an instrument of Your will. Do with me as You see fit to
further Your kingdom work here on earth. Amen.
In
Christ,
Mark
PS: Please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it.
Send any prayer requests to OurChristianWalk@aol.com
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