GIVE FIRST – Wednesday September 20th 2017
Memorise: I will sing into the LORD because he hath dealt bountifully with me. Psalm 13:6
16:2 And
when David had made an end of offering the burnt offerings and the
peace offerings, he blessed the people in the name of the Lord.
16:3 And
he dealt to every one of Israel, both man and woman, to every one a
loaf of bread, and a good piece of flesh, and a flagon of wine.
Acts 20:35 (KJV)
35 I
have shewed you all things, how that so labouring ye ought to support
the weak, and to remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he said, It
is more blessed to give than to receive.
MESSAGE:
Generous
divine provision is a benefit of those in the sheepfold of the Great
Shepherd. God prepares a table of abundance for His sheep (Psalm 23:5). No wonder David, in Psalm 13:6, said:
“I will sing unto the LORD, because he hath dealt bountifully with me.”
This
scripture is a personal testimony of David. After God had blessed him
beyond measure, he began to testify of God’s goodness through songs. If
you carefully study the life of David, you will discover that the secret
of his prosperity lay in the principles he lived by. One of such
principles is demonstrated in today’s Bible reading: he believed giving
to be the key to receiving. Can you imagine a man giving a loaf of bread
to every citizens of a country? This was what David did, and he even
gave much more! We often wonder why most of us are not flowing in God’s
abundance, even though God has resources to cater for more than we could
ever need. One likely reason for this is that we do strictly follow
divine financial principles. Jesus, in Luke 6:38, said:
“Give,
and it shall be given unto you; good measure, pressed down, and shaken
together, and running over, shall men give unto your bosom. For with the
same measure that ye mete withal it shall be measured to you again.”
Let
us draw a few lessons from this. Firstly, if you ever want to receive,
it is your duty to first give. If you fail to sow, you would be
deceiving yourself to expect a harvest. Many of us refuse to give, and
yet we continue to pray, fast and do all other things right. If you want
to receive, first give. It is important to note that God will never own
anyone. If you give, you will receive a harvest, no matter how long it
takes, as long as the seed is not uprooted.
However,
the way the harvest comes and when it will come are issues that may not
be too clear to you.
For instance, you may be expecting your harvest
for a particular seed in the form of physical cash, not knowing that God
has already given it to you as a harvest of peace in the time of
trouble, or as protection when the enemy came calling. Sometimes, you
cannot tell how the harvest of a given seed will come, although if you
key into the Holy Spirit, He can sometimes reveal to you that a
particular harvest you received was from a particular seed you sowed.
Moreover, God who knows our needs should be given the freedom to
determine when and how our harvests should come. Just make sure that a
lifestyle of giving and sowing seeds in an indelible part of you. Do you
give to God? Do you give to His servants? Do you give to the needy? How
often do you give?
Action Point
Giving is an act. Giving is also a spirit. Pray that God will give you the spirit of giving.
Open
Heavens Daily Devotional Lessons was written by Pastor E.A. Adeboye,
the General Overseer of the Redeemed Christian Church of God, one of the
largest evangelical Church in the world and also the President of
Christ the Redeemer's Ministries.
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