Give THOUGH it Hurts.

Too many people have used the phrase in the years "give until it hurts." Most of time these people are preachers that are a little nervous because the offering into the church is not what they hope it would be. (Oh. I wasn't supposed to say that out loud.)
I am thankful for the place I currently go to church. Elevation declares openly that they do not need your money, yet at the same time leads the way in generosity. They celebrate giving every week, and the people give. Not only that, but story after story pour in about how God has blessed them after they committed to give to what He is doing.
What has me on this tangent? It is simple. I started reading this morning in I Samuel. I read the story of Hannah. If you haven't read it, DO. Synopsis: She is one of two wives to Elkanah. In fact, she is the barren wife. She prays every year at the temple at the time of sacrifice, begging for a child. She asks God for a child, and promises that she will return the child to God's service. Finally, her request is granted, and she has Samuel. After she weans him, she presents him to the temple for God's service.
What she has wanted her entire life, she willingly gives up. Her reaction? Highest praise to God. Read her prayer in I Samuel 2. What had to be the hardest possible thing to do was the easiest to do in the sight of a great God that had provided the impossible. God rewarded her faithfulness and her sacrifice, and gave her more children.
What we lose here in the New Testament is the notion of sacrifice. Sacrifice is hard. Ask Jesus. We do not have to give up one of our animals every year. We give a little money in a plate every week (or two, or month, or whenever we visit the church), and think we've sacrificed. Hebrews 13 asks us to offer the "sacrifice of praise" and to share what we have as sacrifices.
Thanks to Jesus, our sacrifices need not be as drastic as in Hannah's day. We no longer have to sacrifice for our sins. It is easy to praise, or to give a couple of dollars. When you do what is hard- give what God is actually telling you to give, or going and doing something that you would not normally do to help someone you would never say hello to on the street, even though it might not be easy- that is when you honor the God that is worthy of the praise. When you find you have survived the pain, it becomes easier to do it again. Feel free to give it a try...

I Surrender none?

Picture this scene in your mind:
It is April 1865. General Robert E. Lee has left the house in Appomattox, VA, where he has surrendered the Army of Northern Virginia to Gen. Ulysses S. Grant. He says his farewell to his tired and hungry soldiers, turned his horse Traveler, and headed home.
The next day, he changes his mind. He decides to race Traveler back to Appomattox and fight again. His soldiers have already been given rations from the US Army, their primary weapons have been taken, but they have weapons for hunting. Some have already headed home. Yet the General wishes to fight.
Wouldn't that be a stupid decision?
Of course it would.
Follower of Christ, how many times have you sang that you surrender all of your life to Him? How often do you say that "I have given Him everything?" Then how often do you immediately take the issue that you have committed to Christ and obsess over it?
If you think it would have been foolish for General Lee to fight without his army, how much more foolish is it to fight against the Creator of the universe who wants to help you achieve a victory that He already won?
Check out 1 Peter 5:6-8-
Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you,  casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you.  Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour (ESV)
He wants you to surrender your cares to Him. His desire is not that you struggle, but that you overcome. Lean on Him. He is greater than the true enemy that is in the world (I John 4:4). Pastor Steven Furtick said a couple of weeks ago: "God always refers to the battles that we are about to face in the past tense."
When you surrender something to God, let go of it. Do not go back after it. If you have given it to Him, trust Him in the circumstance. It is not easy. In that time, lean on Him even more. He will complete the work.
I needed that today. Anyone else?

Give me faith

I really had promised myself that I would blog every week this year.
Yeah- that didn't go so well.
I will say that one of my best-laid plans has gone better than expected. I promised myself that I would read more, and so far, I'm keeping that up. What's most impressive is what I'm reading.
Yeah- I'm reading my Bible more!
Now don't get that thought in your head- I'm not bragging by sharing this. All I am saying with this is that I have made a commitment, and I am sticking to it. The weird thing about it is the the way I decided to approach this.
I had told myself that I would be reading more. Period. This included a variety of items. So I started with Pastor Steven Furtick's Sun Stand Still. I got to a chapter, and I read the words "Saturate your faith with the Word of God." I was convicted. I appreciate all I had learned up to that point in the book. But when I got to that point, I felt I needed to stop reading about faith, I needed to start reading and increase my faith.
Since then, I read the New Testament from Hebrews to Revelation. My new job started on January 17th, and at the end of week three, I was discouraged and ready to give up. In the two days of that weekend, two separate people talked to me about Joseph. So I studied Joseph in Genesis. What I saw was faithfulness and the favor of God shining down on someone in an unfavorable situation.Now I have moved on to Moses.
I have learned so much about faith. Most importantly, I have begun a new habit that I intend to continue. I am growing closer to my Best Friend. All this because of an unintended lesson learned from another book. Pastor Steven, I hope you don't mind.
Until next time, which I hope is in less than a month...