Better?

Hello All,

Today’s Word is quick and kind’ve ‘off the cuff’ but it just so happens that life unfolds that way for us most of the time. Most times you don’t get time to prepare or factor in all the things that avail themselves so clearly in hindsight. For that very reason, I want to just raise my hands and shout “HOLY HOLY HOLY, LORD GOD ALMIGHTY!!!” You see where I said “for us” in the previous statement? Here’s a wonderful thought – There is NO hindsight for God. Nothing happens in a way that when God sees it play out, He thinks to Himself “If I’d known then what I know now, I would’ve made a different decision.” However, this is inescapably fundamental to our experience.

So in the clear understanding that God has already applied all of the necessary prep work He needed to do before even one creative word was spoken, this 'firm foundation' should help us to see things a little differently. We know the idiom “What goes around comes around.” has its roots in the truth of Scripture – Galatians 6:7 Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. Why? Because in the foreknowledge of God, that’s how He set up the natural order.

Here’s The Word:

Acts 20:35 In all things I have shown you that by working hard in this way we must help the weak and remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he himself said, ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’”

Oftentimes, we’re not only on the lookout but we teach of how important it is to recognize ‘times of blessing’. We wait for our miracles, seek for answers and count our blessings on the daily. Trust me, I’m not about to bad mouth how wonderful our God is in providing for us the things we need – ‘His mercies are new each morning’ and we’re grateful for such undeserved abundance.

My point is not to detract from being an appreciative receiver of good at the hands of God. My point is this; if we know that God has set up the order of our natural world and one of the underlying truths is “it’s better to give”, then I would imagine that there are actually more opportunities for us TO GIVE than there are opportunities to receive. See where I’m going with this? So we should not only rejoice but share and encourage the idea that we should spend more time looking for those ‘better’ opportunities.

I was moved to share this out of joy AND conviction. Just recently, I was touched to my heart at how God had set me at the right place at the right time to be a blessing to a dear friend of mine and my next conscious thought was “When was the last time you were able to realize a moment like this?” ...aside of lesser generosities, it had been a while. Immediately, I was flooded with the understanding of how God orchestrates things out of His good pleasure and TOWARD His good pleasure.

So I leave you with an encouragement that I hope it won’t take hindsight for me to realize in the future: Cultivate a heart of generosity and don’t miss your opportunities to be a blessing. I don’t doubt that there are more of them than situations that 'give' you something. I’m also convinced that a denial to embrace this should make us question ourselves; Are we too gain-focused to realize that giving is better?

In Him,
Cros