Be a Blessing...

Happy Sunday!

Many years ago, I began to pray..."Lord help me to be a blessing to everyone I come in contact with!"  I still pray this and I'm so grateful that as I have prospered I am able to do more.  I think I've always been a giver, and giving is so much more fun when the range of gifts and blessings to others expands.  Now before you send me a link to your third cousins ex-boyfriends Go Fund Me page, let me say I've learned the hard way that giving must be inspired or led by the Holy Spirit.  I once had an attitude with God, after giving time and resources to a few ungrateful and seemingly heartless individuals.  Yes, don't worry he can handle it!  He said to me, not audibly but I really know it was the Lord..."I didn't tell you to give them anything!"  Ouch!  When I thought it over, the warnings were there.  I bypassed the leading of the Holy Spirit and did what I thought was right.  Yes, we are promised in Luke 6:38 that when we give, it will be given back to us in a corresponding manner to which we gave.  We are also assured in the Word, that being wise is better than money.  Proverbs 16:16 says, "Wisdom is worth much more than gold. Understanding is worth much more than silver."(Easy-to-Read Version).

People will always remind you that prosperity is much more than money.  Yes, of course prosperity is physical, emotional, spiritual, and financial.  Even though each of these are important, much falls on the financial.  If we are honest, we probably have a list of all the things we would do if the money was right.  Jesus spoke much about money and our relationship with things.  His ultimate theme was "Being Blessed to Be a Blessing".   We often miss this theme especially in the story of the "Rich Young Ruler".  Matthew 19 tells the story. The young man comes to Jesus and asks, "Teacher, what good deed can I do to assure myself eternal life?"   Jesus told him keep the commandments.  The young man boasts that he'd kept them all his life.  You know how we do..."Oh, I have always been saved.  I've been in church all my life!"  But as the old church members would say, "You ain't living a nickles worth of nothing!"  Jesus could see through the facade!  He knew the young man just wanted to buy his way in.  His trust was in what his money,  and the security, and position it could provide.  Jesus had nothing against financial prosperity.  He later told the disciples,  “Let me assure you that no one has ever given up ANYTHING—home, brothers, sisters, mother, father, children, or property—for love of me and to tell others the Good News, who won’t be given back, a HUNDRED times over, homes, brothers, sisters, mothers, children, and land—with persecutions!  All these will be his HERE on earth, and in the world to come he shall have eternal life."(Mark 10:29-30, Living Bible).  If the young man had stayed around long enough, he would have found that you "can't beat God giving, no matter how you try!"

I'm personally working on giving mercy and understanding.  I'm trying to give the spiritual and emotional support others need.  My co-workers and my children laugh at how random people just want to talk to me.  Yes, even crazy people on the CTA.  They don't know I can cast them demons out!  LOL!  People are hurting, they are often misunderstood.  They are lonely! They are fearful.  Psychologists and psychiatrists are being paid for what we share for free.  Yes, there are times when I don't want to be bothered, and try not to make eye contact.  But there are times when I allow the Holy Spirit to lead.  Those times brings great joy.  It's what great songs and poems are written about...that perfect moment when you are in the right place at the right time with the right information and the right understanding and you do the right thing!  Colossians 3:22-25 says, "Do your best. Work from the heart for your real Master, for God, confident that you’ll get paid in full when you come into your inheritance. Keep in mind always that the ultimate Master you’re serving is Christ. The sullen servant who does shoddy work will be held responsible. Being a follower of Jesus doesn’t cover up bad work."(Message).

Love and prayers, Cynthia