Words Of Encouragement To Start The Day (Wednesday 09/15/2010)

Have you Become A Taker?...

Luke 6:35-38 (Amplified Bible)

³⁵But love your enemies and be kind and do good [doing favors so that someone derives benefit from them] and lend, expecting and hoping for nothing in return but considering nothing as lost and despairing of no one; and then your recompense (your reward) will be great (rich, strong, intense, and abundant), and you will be sons of the Most High, for He is kind and charitable and good to the ungrateful and the selfish and wicked. ³⁶So be merciful (sympathetic, tender, responsive, and compassionate) even as your Father is [all these]. ³⁷Judge not [neither pronouncing judgment nor subjecting to censure], and you will not be judged; do not condemn and pronounce guilty, and you will not be condemned and pronounced guilty; acquit and forgive and release (give up resentment, let it drop), and you will be acquitted and forgiven and released. ³⁸Give, and [gifts] will be given to you; good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over, will they pour into [the pouch formed by] the bosom [of your robe and used as a bag]. For with the measure you deal out [with the measure you use when you confer benefits on others], it will be measured back to you.

I recently went to see the movie “Takers,” I know many of you want to stop reading the devotional because you think I am going to ruin the movie for you because you have not seen it yet, but I promise I won’t. The general theme of the movie was that this group of men were individuals that thrived off of taking things, mainly money and they never took small amounts they always went for the big job, the big pay day. As my daughter and I discussed the movie we talked about how it related to individuals we know. They are in our lives but giving is not in their nature, they only seek to benefit from the relationship, never to give anything in to it, we give and they take. Then of course as she does so many times she said something profound and insightful, she commented, “that is often times what we do with God…We never want to give we just want to take what God is willing to give. We just want to get!” My Lord he really will use the most unlikely of people to bring a relevant word.

We have a misguided perspective in some cases that God is the giver of all (which He is) and we don’t need to attend to Him or His needs and desires in any way, shape or form. We want to do God like we do people, to include people we are married to, we want to be takers only, not doers of the word or anything else. We want to be blessed with people in our lives that we benefit from solely and never have to give anything into that relationship; we are focused on the things in our lives being there for our good pleasure not we being created for God’s good pleasure and us being on this earth to benefit someone else. We have allowed a selfish mentality to become embedded in our character and we are quick to see what is in it for us in every relationship including the relationship we have with God the Father, Jesus His son and the Holy Spirit. We want all we can get, but we never take the time to get up and think over our lives and remember all God has done for us, kept us from and guided us out of, and just give Him thanks, praise and gratitude. We forget all the people God has allowed to touch our lives or benefit us or sow into us; we also forget that we all liked to be praised even when we say verbally we don’t need it, we do. Well why would God be any different? He desires our praise and our thanks. He desires the very yielding of our lives to Him to be used for His work, His glory and the up building His kingdom not our personal agenda.

It is time to learn to give unselfishly. Not to be a taker but a giver. Giver of our time, talent and resources to God first and then those who we are married to, that are our family and those God has strategically placed in our path to minister to and to pour or sow into. Our life is not our own, it is not for the getting but it is supposed to be for the giving. If only we could see that giving does produces so much more in us than just being a taker only could ever do. But the side benefit in God’s kingdom is that when you yield to Him, and you give unselfishly that He will give back to you. We don’t see that we dictate what we get out of things by what we actually choose to put into things! Become a GIVER today, it will give you more than you could ever think hope or dream!