Saturday, August 31, 2013

Christ Makes Us Prosperous For Every Occassion


And God is able to make all grace (every favor and earthly blessing) come to you in abundance, so that you may always and under all circumstances and whatever the need be self-sufficient [possessing enough to require no aid or support and furnished in abundance for every good work and charitable donation]. 2 Corinthians 9:8

I want you to think for a moment about having all of the money in the world, every last cent of it. As Jesus would put it: all of the world’s filthy lucre is yours. (I say that tongue and cheek) If you had it all, you would absolutely be self sufficient and you would have an overwhelming abundance, but even with all of it, could you be charitable for every good work? No, but our Father says that He is able to make us sufficient, with abundance, for every good work. How?

Now to Him Who, by (in consequence of) the [action of His] power that is at work within us, is able to [carry out His purpose and] do superabundantly, far over and above all that we [dare] ask or think [infinitely beyond our highest prayers, desires, thoughts, hopes, or dreams]-- Ephesians 3:20

Far too often we look to money or possessions as the resource for our giving, but these earthly things are not enough to cover being charitable unto every good work. Possessions are insufficient for such a task. And during the Great Tribulation we will not even have any earthly possessions, yet Jesus tells us that we will be blessed because we will be used by our Father to give to those in need, Matthew 24:44-46.

To be charitable for every good work, we must look to the power of our Father to be at work within us. Our Father’s power turns water to wine, John 2. His power feeds thousands of people with only some scraps of food, Matthew 14:16-19. When our Father works through us the dead are raised, the blind see, the deaf hear, the lame walk, the lost are saved and it is all done without earthly possessions. To be the greatest in Heaven we must be the world’s biggest servants, Matthew 23:11. To be the biggest servant requires our Father’s power to be the force that is working through us.

So we need to stop looking for earthly possessions to be the power of our charity and we need to look to our Father’s power. Only through His grace can we be charitable in every good work. Desire to be the greatest, so desire that without money you are used by our Father, Who is God, to bless every need that the world has.

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