All tagged bounty

Prayer, Faith, and Giving

Richard Forbes
Christian , Daily Devotional, Missions Giving

It takes money to finance missionary work, so many church leaders dedicate a week or two each year to discussing and educating their congregations on this endeavor, and to ask them to give. However, before they go about doing this they would be better served if they would ask themselves a couple of very basic questions. The first is this: which comes first, money or prayer, and the second is whether missions increases a church’s faith, or whether strengthened faith increases a desire to support missions? This is the subject of our study today. I read Paul's words in Philippians 4 in which he was thanking the church for its gifts to him as he traveled and spread the gospel. He made it clear that God supplies the church, and the missionary’s needs through the faithful, and that it isn’t the faithful who make these efforts possible for God. “God will supply every need of yours according to his riches”.

Preparing the Land for the Seeds of our Faith

Richard Forbes
Christian , Daily Devotional , Soil of Faith

Do we work the soil of our faith, not just till it, but work into it fresh compost, leaves, and other nutrients? Do we dig out the rock that lies just beneath the surface, and make rich, deep, soil out of what once was shallow and of little use? If the seeds of faith are to mature, and thrive, they must have good soil to support their roots. So how deep was the soil beneath us when we first believed, and is it fertile enough to support the roots of our growing faith? Are we working as much on the soil beneath us as we are in the planting of the seeds we want to grow?

Preparing the ground we sow our seeds of faith on

Richard Forbes
Christian , Daily Devotional , Preparing for Faith

In the parable of the Sower, we see that the success of our faith is being compared to the growth of seeds, and that their bounty depends on the soil on which they are sown. So today we need to look at the quality of the soil where our faith is being planted. Some of us feel that we have been walked on all our lives, and that we are too hardened to ever accept faith; some feel that our lives have been rocky and we are too course and lacking of goodness for faith, and some see nothing but briars and weeds surrounding us and think we are unsuitable for faith, so we feel lost before we start... but all is not lost, and there is hope for us all.