Blessedness of Giving!

In everything I showed you [by example] that by working hard in this way you must help the weak and remember the words of the Lord Jesus, that He Himself said, ‘It is more blessed [and brings greater joy] to give than to receive.’” ACTS 20:35 AMP

It has always been said that 'Example is better than precept'. People say a lot of things by rote because they have been fed those things by other people, not because they have tested and proven the truths of  what they have heard. One important lesson life teaches is that what have tested and proven is what will sustain you through the dark days of uncertainties.

How about giving and receiving? Is it your right to receive when you have not learnt how to give? I look through Scriptures and realize that all the men who made impact where people who invested time and resources in the lives of other people. There are some we don't know their names, like the boy who gave up his lunch to feed 5,000 men, and the ones we know  their names, like Zaccheus, a chief tax collector, rejected by the world, but accepted by God because they learnt that the secret of impact is in giving your life and resources in service to other people.

We claim to entitlement as a result of the titles we bear, forgetting that God's PROVISION is always assured for any VISION which he births. Ministry isn't an excuse for laziness or indolence, but a challenge to do what you can to be a blessing to the world you have been placed. We don't define impact by money alone; imagine the value of a kind word given to someone who has been battered by the world's unkindness. Imagine the value of a visit to someone who has lost everything and is alone.

I must not be carried away by 'my needs', but I must ask God where he wants me to fit in and impact for him. He also gave first of all, and I stand here because he gave. He demands I take of what I have received, and like him, impact the world with what I have received, which is Him. Is that true of you? His time of favour is here.