Beloved: grace, mercy and peace be yours abundantly from God our Father and Jesus Christ our Lord. I gladly welcome you to the transition week between the months of October and November 2023. My prayer for you is that you will excel in all the will of God for your life, in Jesus’ name. Amen.
Now one of the things that represent the will of God for your life that you need to excel in handling is your devotion to supporting those feeding you with the word of God with your material things. Look at what the word of God says about that: “Anyone who receives instruction in the word must share all good things with his instructor.” (Gal 6:6NIV)
Who must share all good things with his instructor? Everyone who is being taught in the word of God! In other words, there is no one that is being taught the word of God that should be left out in this. Instead, every one of them must be involved. And does every one of us being taught the word of God have the ability to be involved in giving from our material things to those who are teaching us? Yes, every one of us being taught the word of God has the ability to support those teaching us with our material things.
How is that so? It is so because God does not expect us to give to them what we do not have but from what we have. Paul, speaking about how to give to please God to the Corinthians, says, “For if the willingness is there, the gift is acceptable according to what one has, not according to what he does not have.” (2Cor 8:12NIV) Did you see that? Our willingness to obey God is the first thing He is always looking out for in our dealings with Him. So, as long as we are willing to obey His command to support those feeding us with His word with our material things, He will be pleased with us.
But being willing to give to them is not all that He requires of us; He also wants us to be actually giving to them. He does not want us to be saying, “God sees my heart that I want to give to you. It is just that I do not have.” Instead, He wants us to give to them based on what we have and not based on what we do not have. That means regardless of how little our resources may be, He still expects us to give to them and not make excuses. That is because as long as the willingness is there, whatever we give to them will be accepted by Him, based on what we have and not based on what we do not have.
Now we all know that God knows what every one of us has. So, He knows what we can afford to give to support those feeding us with His word, regardless of how little our resources may be. It is, then, up to us to obey Him and give to them or to disobey Him and hold back for ourselves whatever we might have given to them. But also keep in mind the fact that He cannot be mocked or deceived by us, as far as giving matters are concerned. It is what we sow that we will reap – we will not reap what we have not sowed. In other words, God will not reward us for what we have not done for Him or His servants. (Cf. Gal 6:7)
Remember the widow of Zarephath. God knew that all she had in her house was just a handful of flour and a little oil in a jug. Yet He commanded her to prepare a meal for His servant, Elijah, from it. And observe that He did not ask her to go and borrow to get food for Elijah or to wait until she became a millionaire to before she would give to him. On the contrary, He asked her to give him food from the little she had at the time. Why? As long as she was willing to obey God, the very little she was giving to Elijah from the little she had would be pleasing and acceptable to Him. (Cf. 1Kings 17:8-24)
Thankfully, that woman obeyed God. And because she did, God rewarded her with daily miracles of renewal all through the period of the famine that the land experienced at the time. How? Everyday she realised that her flour and her oil were simply replenishing themselves, so that they could not be used up until the famine was over. That, of course, is amazing to know.
But what if that woman had not obeyed God, simply because what she had was little? Would she and her son have been sustained during that famine? No! And what would have happened to Elijah? God would simply have found some other means to take care of him, as He had been doing before. So, God will take of those He sends to minister to us whether we care for them or not. But we will surely not be rewarded by Him for what we have not done for them. Don’t be left behind, then, in giving to those feeding you with God’s word. My prayer is that you will not miss those miracles that are meant to happen in your life through your generosity to them, in Jesus’ name. Amen.
Have a splendid week.
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