Good morning Friends,
I’m a curious reader, and quite frankly there are some scenes in the Bible that didn’t quite make sense to me. It has to do with the fact that more often than not, we find God, Jesus or a Prophet demanding that a person who did not have much, to still give HIM (The only One I know that absolutely needs nothing). Well, I usually concluded that God needed their seed to give them a harvest. That route of thinking is spot on, but upon further meditation, I realised God is much more interested in who we’re becoming while giving during our need season much more than He is in just giving us our desired request. Many people have blamed “Men of God” for still taking from people they knew did not have much. This was not written to defend any act of extortion of the clergy from the laity in any way. God has a very just system of judging any man who handles the privileged position of Authority over His inheritance (God’s people) with dishonesty. That being said, the fact that God asks people to give what they practically do not have boggles my mind and theology sometimes, even if they had, they only have enough for themselves and not for some other “belle-full” prophet new in town. It is therefore only normal and loving, to find someone who does not have and bless such a person with something, especially when you are the Omnipotent God. I can only imagine the widow of Zarephath’s first perception of Prophet Elijah and his instruction to her about baking her last meal for him. She must have thought she and her son would probably die earlier than predicted, after giving her last meal… but hey we all know that did not happen.
She was not the only one this happened to, we find another interesting story in John chapter 4 of a woman who had been broken by her experiences with men, she was a victim of failed serial relationships. By the time “Prophet” Jesus met her, she was in her 6th relationship and possibly counting. She had no sense of security, none of the guys she was involved with ever promised her stability or marriage. She was an ad on, an accessory, something to ease the masculine hormonal discharge, they always let her go when they were done with “collecting” from her, all her self-worth and esteem. Here came the 7th Man (The last chapter in my book; Beautiful Scars) and the first thing He does is to ask her a favour. Why would God ask such a person to give Him anything? She needed everything Jesus could offer. She needed comfort, grace, identity, acceptance, security and even money. It is safe to assume that she was broke… for a woman of her supposed age (after five husbands, she could not have been a teenager or one in her mid-thirties… She must have been at least 45 years old) to have to go to the well by herself in the afternoon, it means she had no maid and was used by these men every chance they got. She was the one in need and not Jesus. With all these said, Jesus still asked her to give Him something…
John 4:19 (KJV) A woman of Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give Me a drink.”
Why does God sometimes act like a Mean Prophet, especially when we’re in our darkest hour? It seems unfair and quite unlike a loving God. It’s like someone who isn’t blind asking a blind man for what the time says. It would seem like cruel mockery and a mean thing to do. But In my meditations, I have come to realise one thing God usually seeks to achieve with such instructions;
1. He wants to make us realise that we are never without something to give: You may think you are at your lowest point right now and have nothing to offer, but listen… when God shows up, get ready to give something. Whenever He demands that we give something, especially when it seems like we have nothing to give, just realise that something supernatural is about to happen, and be sensitive to that season. What He wants to help us realise is that we are GIVERS, no matter what we may be going through. Your perception of yourself has to change before your situation ultimately changes… Again I say, you are a GIVER. You may have lost a child, but you can go on and give comfort to those coming to comfort you. You may be broke and unemployed but realise that God never made a piece of junk, you are value-laden and can still choose to supply your society with a bit of that grace you carry. Solve a problem you were born to solve and get rich on your way to destiny. Giving has never reduced the giver to become the needy, giving always turns the needy to a giver. The reason is because for the first time, someone makes a demand on you and asks that you give something when all you cried for was for someone to give you a job, a mate, a house, a car, a child. You can turn around and begin to do the giving. Hannah perceived in her heart that the only way to turn her situation around was to stop playing victim and start giving the exact thing she needed. You need a job? Give some value to someone who needs it. Every economy runs on initiative giving. What that means is choosing to give first without having received first, eventually though, the giver ultimately receives, because if giving is taking place at any time, someone somewhere has got to be on the receiving end. However, no economy can run on initiative receiving… if you fail to give, while waiting on someone to give you, you have shut down the system on your account and you can be sure there will be neither giving nor receiving for you. Another way to illustrate this is with a marriage relationship. When two individuals come into the relationship solely with the mind of giving, both eventually receive, but when both come with an insatiable receiving tank, none will receive. Beloved, this is one of the reasons why giving is such a powerful principle.
I have repeated this principle often enough to see that it works. Every time I look beyond my needs and stretch my hands to be a blessing to someone who is in need, or someone who may not even be in as dire a need as I am in, God supernaturally supplies my need. There was a time my team and I needed to raise over 7OO,OOO naira for a project and we had not raised up to half of the amount. At this time, the project was to be executed in less than 48 hours and all the money would be needed then. In the midst of all of that, God spoke to my heart to give a lady the little cash I had left in my account at the time, it did not make sense, but I obeyed… I am so glad I did, because God raised that money supernaturally without my aid. He needed me to realise that no amount of need should rob me of my consciousness of being a giver. What you are not, before the need, you cannot become after you are given, you only become that, when YOU give. The Bible says it is more BLESSED to give than to receive, however many would rather be given than be blessed, but glory to God I’m blessed and the devil cannot talk me out of giving. I am completely sold out to a giving lifestyle and God keeps enlarging my capacity to give by His Grace. If you don’t want something I possess, be careful around me… I just may give you!! Glory to God forever.
If a seeing man ever asks a blind man for what the time says, it is not because the seeing man cannot check the time for himself, it may be that he wants to show the blind man how he himself would never need to ask another person for the time. Stop playing victim! You are more blessed than you give God credit for. Revive your giving and see how blessed you indeed are.
Have a great week ahead. God bless you.