09/06/2023
Have you always wanted to be the kind of Christian that is a blessing to others? Perhaps you have watched saints in your church and wished you could touch other people in the same way that they do. Well, don't discount yourself because you may be rippling out blessings at a much higher rate than you think!
“I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth. He who plants and he who waters are one, and each will receive his wages according to his labor. For we are God's fellow workers. You are God's field, God's building.”
1 Corinthians 3:6-9 ESV
There is an APP called "Where's George?". The idea is to register a dollar bill in it, and then as other people receive that bill in their change they logon to the APP and enter where they received the bill and by doing so you are able to track all the places it visits. If you want to try it, go to www.wheresgeorge.com - (but as a disclaimer, I have never done this myself). My point is that the dollar bills in your wallet visit many places and have probably traveled more widely than you could possibly imagine! Yet for the time they are in your wallet you see them as just ordinary dollar bills, but when you spend them; off they go again. The good we share with our neighbors is very similar.... When, in our faith we come into contact with others our blessings travel too.
A few years ago I had a chance meeting (is it really chance when God has orchestrated it?) at the county refuse center while dumping a load of shrub clippings. As I pulled up to the dumpster marked “limbs”, I noticed a fellow whose vehicle was loaded down with tree limbs and the entire inside of his car was filled as well. I thought for a moment and then put on my work gloves, walked over to him and said "It looks like you could use some help!" He responded that he could handle it, but I insisted, and in just a few minutes his load of limbs and brush was in the dumpster. It was then that he noticed the VMI sticker on my truck and as it turned out he had attended the Virginia Military Institute as well. It is a very small college so to randomly run into another alumnus is very unusual. He helped me unload my clippings and as we worked, we chatted and exchanged names. With both vehicles unloaded we shook hands and left.
A day later I decided to email a few of my VMI classmates about my chance meeting, but wanted to include some information about my new friend... so I googled him. As it turned out he was the Senior Pastor at a church very near where I was attending services. So I went to their web site, found his email address, and sent him a short note. Quickly I received a reply, he had been trying to find me, and when unsuccessful, had told God that if he wanted us to meet He would need to make it happen... we made plans for lunch.
Later that week we met, and over a salad, he informed me that my kindness had told him there was something spiritually special about our meeting. The small blessing of helping him unload his limbs was beginning to branch out, and his church was added to my prayers. From there a select group of my classmates and friends heard the story of our lunch and it branched again. Via this devotional today, it is traveling around the world and many people are reading about how a single act of "loving your neighbor" in Nashville Tennessee is now impacting prayers and Christians in many countries and on multiple continents.
An act of kindness, just like the dollar bills you give a homeless person to help buy his dinner, is beginning a journey. You may view what you do as insignificant, but you never know the lives you touch or the impact a small blessing you render has made, but Friend, it has ramifications... because that is the way God multiplies our efforts. Listen to the words of Jesus...
“He put another parable before them, saying, "The kingdom of heaven is like a grain of mustard seed that a man took and sowed in his field. It is the smallest of all seeds, but when it has grown it is larger than all the garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and make nests in its branches."”
Matthew 13:31-32 ESV
So never discount the importance of those tiny things you do for the kingdom of God. Your little sip of water to a thirsty man gushes forth like a river when God increases it.
“Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, 'Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.'"”
John 7:38 ESV
It doesn't take much to serve the Lord and to prosper Him. When you prepare for bed tonight think back on any little kindness you shared today, or any mite you gave in His name, and thank our Father for all He will do with that kind and merciful act.
“Then they said to him, "What must we do, to be doing the works of God?" Jesus answered them, "This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent."”
John 6:28-29 ESV
Jesus told us to first love God, and to then love our neighbor... His words carried power within them, and our taking those words into our hearts allows God's Will to be served through us. (Mark 12:30-31)
Prayer:
Father, thank you for taking the small, seemingly insignificant, things we do as we follow Jesus, and multiplying them into rivers of living Water. Thank you for revealing their impact, but we thank you even more for all the ripples made by our actions that occur without us having any knowledge of how you are increasing them. The glory is yours Father as you magnify our offering and obedience. Our blessing is in witnessing the good you do once our hand has been withdrawn and we have done as you have commanded us. A simple act of kindness, a chance meeting that allows us to say God bless you to another needy soul. Then when we step back, we see you at work… making the seeds grow, and the flowers bloom into extravagant beauty from the acts of kindness we have sowed along the way. We watch as your flowers bless others, and are passed from hand to hand, carrying with them the scent of your presence, and accompanied by the incense of our having loved your Son Jesus, and one another. Praised be your name Lord for expanding your kingdom using the tiny, often unnoticed things we do for you each day. You are the catalyst of our faith, and the increase of our love. You magnify your perfect and boundless will in all things great and small. Holy, Holy, Holy are you our God Almighty, and greatly are you to be praised!
Rich Forbes