How Giving Benefits You

HAPPY SUNDAY!

Yes, I am yelling! LOL!  It's was an awesome service!  Praise and Worship was excellent and we had a guest speaker.  Our guest speaker was Pastor Kerwin B. Lee from Berean Christian Church in Stone Mountain, Georgia.  He used 2 Kings 4:8- as his reference.  His topic was "How Giving to the Man of God Benefits You!"

I love it when Pastor Lee comes to visit us.  He is a Preacher Teacher.  He teaches the Word and makes it relevant for our daily lives.  Maybe you remember the story.  The Prophet Elisha would travel a lot.  When he happened to be in a certain city a woman and her husband would allow him to stay in their home.  The woman was prosperous and perceptive. “I’m certain,” said the woman to her husband, “that this man who stops by with us all the time is a holy man of God. Why don’t we add on a small room upstairs and furnish it with a bed and desk, chair and lamp, so that when he comes by he can stay with us?"   So they added on the room and furnished it and the prophet stayed there each time he was in the area.  The Prophet Elisha appreciated what the woman had done.  One day he said to her, “You’ve gone far beyond the call of duty in taking care of us; what can we do for you? Do you have a request we can bring to the king or to the commander of the army?”
She replied, “Nothing. I’m secure and satisfied in my family.”  Elisha conferred with Gehazi: “There’s got to be something we can do for her. But what?”  Gehazi said, “Well, she has no son, and her husband is an old man.” “Call her in,” said Elisha. He called her and she stood at the open door. Elisha said to her, “This time next year you’re going to be nursing an infant son.” (Message Translation)

Long story short, she had the son, he grew up, one day he was in the fields working with his father and collapsed.  His father told the servants to take him to his mother.  He died in her arms.  She laid his body on the prophets bed and went to see the prophet.  You will have to read the rest of the story for yourself...but here are some important points.

When you give...it leads to the ARRIVAL of blessings!  The woman didn't have any ulterior motives for giving to the prophet.  She gave without expecting anything in return.  The Word says, "When you do something for someone else, don’t call attention to yourself. You’ve seen them in action, I’m sure—‘playactors’ I call them—treating prayer meeting and street corner alike as a stage, acting compassionate as long as someone is watching, playing to the crowds. They get applause, true, but that’s all they get. When you help someone out, don’t think about how it looks. Just do it—quietly and unobtrusively. That is the way your God, who conceived you in love, working behind the scenes, helps you out." - Matthew 6:2-4 (Message Translation)

When you give...it leads to the REVIVAL of blessings!  The woman received the gift of a child and she knew it was a blessing from God.  When the child died, she went to the prophet.  The prophet eventually came and the child was brought back to life.  She stayed positive!  In verse 26, Elisha's servant asked her how was everything and everyone...she said, "Everything is Fine!"  She exhibited FAITH.  Hebrews 11:1, "Faith is the confidence that what we hope for will actually happen; it gives us assurance about things we cannot see." (New Living Translation)

When you give...it leads to a SURVIVAL of blessings!  Years passed, the woman's husband died, and she fell on hard times.  2 Kings Chapter 8 says, that after the famine the woman and her son returned to their home.  When Elisha and his servant recognized her they spoke with the King and he restored everything that she had lost, including the value of the crops that had been harvested while she was away!  Galatians 6:7 sums it all up, "Don’t be misled: No one makes a fool of God. What a person plants, he will harvest. The person who plants selfishness, ignoring the needs of others—ignoring God!—harvests a crop of weeds. All he’ll have to show for his life is weeds! But the one who plants in response to God, letting God’s Spirit do the growth work in him, harvests a crop of real life, eternal life."

Have a Blessed Week!  Love and prayers, Cynthia