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“But this I say, he that sows sparingly shall reap also sparingly—and he who sows bountifully shall reap also bountifully. Every man according as he purposes in his heart, so let him give—not grudgingly or of necessity—for God loves a cheerful giver.”
II Corinthians 9:6-7
“Moreover, brethren, we inform you of the Grace of God bestowed on the churches of Macedonia, how that in a great trial of affliction the abundance of their joy and their deep poverty abounded unto the riches of their liberality.”
II Corinthians 8:1-2
To be blessed means to be consecrated, set apart, and highly favored. When God blesses you, He does not leave anything out. It is more than personal happiness, wealth or well-being.
Blessed To Be A Blessing talks about a life living to become a blessing. God blessed us not only to enrich ourselves but to become a blessing to others.
In this ebook, I tackled about the significance of the word “Give” and other related words in accordance to the Bible. The Bible speaks about lots of things about giving. And sometimes, the only thing that hinders God’s blessing is our unwillingness to be a blessing.
A Step By Step Guide In Becoming A Blessing
We already know that becoming a blessing to others is God’s purpose to every single human being. We also know that God did not only make this system to work entirely for his own benefit, but we have seen that God blessed humanity first and that he continuously blesses those who bless others.
However, there are still lots of people who are having difficulty in doing this noble thing that God intended for us to do. I enumerated four main steps in becoming a blessing.
Please note that I used the phrase “Forget yourself”. The ultimate hindrance to becoming a blessing is being too concern for own self. This is the main reason why we cannot become a blessing to others because of too much love for oneself. Becoming a blessing is more on forgetting your own self and giving the rest to others.
Step 1: Forget yourself and learn to love God above all (Matthew 6:33). 33But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.
Sometimes, even Christians fail to love God above all. They gave too much importance to the blessing rather to the giver of blessings which results to idolatry. The passage above is clear enough to remind us that we do not have to worry about anything, but we have to seek first his kingdom. If you remember our lesson last year about “Kingdom of God”, it is not a place, but it is a system.
Introduction
Last week we discussed about God’s purpose for us, to become a blessing. Today, we will discuss about the benefits of becoming a blessing. This will answer our question, “what is it for me in becoming a blessing”?
Before we go to the details of becoming a blessing, we have to understand that God designed the whole system with a WIN-WIN situation. Following the rule of “Blessed to be a Blessing,” God did not design the system to be only in favor of one side.
God see to it that the whole system works for the benefit of everybody. In fact, if our church only follows the whole system, I believe that we will be reaching the point that “NO ONE IS IN NEED”.
Is this impossible? The fact is, it did happen in the life of the first church that “no one is in need”. Let us see what the Bible says in Acts 4:32-35.
32All the believers were one in heart and mind. No one claimed that any of his possessions was his own, but they shared everything they had. 33With great power the apostles continued to testify to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and much grace was upon them all. 34There were no needy persons among them. For from time to time those who owned lands or houses sold them, brought the money from the sales 35and put it at the apostles’ feet, and it was distributed to anyone as he had need.
As a result, of becoming one in heart and mind, they try to share “everything they have” and as a result, “there were no needy persons among them”, everybody enjoys. Now, you may see that those people, who gave, lose something. The passage did not mention about losing something for those people who gave.
You can never see in the Bible that those people who gave losses something except the next passage, Acts 5:1-11. A couple was among the believers who sold their land to offer it to the Lord (note that giving is more like offering to the Lord). This is what happens. After selling it, they kept some of the amount for themselves (maybe just to taste what they have labored for), and gave the rest to the apostles.
What happens next? Peter rebuked Ananias and after rebuking, he fell dead. After 3 hours, his wife came not knowing what happened, Peter asked her if it was really the price Ananias got for the land. Sapphira, lied (maybe to protect her husband’s dignity). After Peter rebuked her, she also fell dead.
Now let us go to the benefits of becoming a blessing.
How To Live A Life Of Becoming A Blessing
Malachi 3:10
10Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this,” says the LORD Almighty, “and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that you will not have room enough for it.”
Introduction
The word “Give” was mentioned 869 times in the Bible while the word ”Gave” was mentioned 633 times. The word “Offer” was mentioned 123 times, while the word “Offered” was mentioned 90 times. “Tithe” was mentioned 13 times and finally “tithes” 15 times.
Overall, the idea of giving or being generous was mentioned 1,713 times, thus making this as one of the most highly emphasized themes in the Bible. This is why no matter what they say against tithing or giving or as becoming generous as they say it to be “unscriptural”, never and do not believe in them. And even if until now, you do not believe about the idea of becoming generous, I do hope that our simple word search will give you the idea of how important this is to our Lord.
I tried comparing the word “love” or the idea of “to love”, the word love was mentioned 513 times while the word loved was mentioned 89 times and finally the word “loves” 68 times. Overall, it sums up to 670 times. Note that “LOVE” is the central theme of the Bible but the idea of giving and becoming generous as a practical application of love was indeed given a great emphasis in the Bible.
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