BLESSED TO BE A BLESSING by Gary Wilkerson
God wants to bless and favor you. He wants to enrich your marriage and your spiritual life. He wants you to be wise and discerning and make astute decisions that lead to blessing in your life.
We need to be careful about the blessings of God, however. Not careful because He blesses us but careful with what we do with those blessings. Many of us receive blessings from God but then we turn them into something selfish.
In Luke 12:16-19 (ESV), Jesus talks about a man who was blessed: “The land of a rich man produced plentifully, and he thought to himself, What shall I do, for I have nowhere to store my crops?”
God is generous and He loves to pour out gifts on His children. The man in this story was blessed abundantly but as we look closely at the contrast in this story, we see that it takes a turn into the wrong direction.
We see that the blessed man “thought to himself.” That is often where the problem begins, my friend. God begins to bless us and we start thinking, “What am I going to do with this?” When we start going down the road of wondering what to do with our resources, selfishness usually follows. Look at the language here: “And he thought to himself, What shall I do, for I have nowhere to store my crops?”
Whose crops (blessings) are they? They belong to God—everything belongs to God! So this man’s mind was becoming selfish. He was beginning to see the gifts from God, the relationships, the talents, as things that could be used for his own benefit, and selfishness began to permeate the very fiber of who he was.
“And he said, I will do this: I will tear down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I will say to my soul, Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.”
We must be very careful when we hear preaching about the blessings of God. Our perception of His blessings is vitally important. Do we want to heap blessings on ourselves in order to create a perfect little cocoon for our comfort and enjoyment? Or do we want to look around us and bless others? We are blessed from the very beginning of God’s covenant of blessing with mankind—blessed to be a blessing!
We need to be careful about the blessings of God, however. Not careful because He blesses us but careful with what we do with those blessings. Many of us receive blessings from God but then we turn them into something selfish.
In Luke 12:16-19 (ESV), Jesus talks about a man who was blessed: “The land of a rich man produced plentifully, and he thought to himself, What shall I do, for I have nowhere to store my crops?”
God is generous and He loves to pour out gifts on His children. The man in this story was blessed abundantly but as we look closely at the contrast in this story, we see that it takes a turn into the wrong direction.
We see that the blessed man “thought to himself.” That is often where the problem begins, my friend. God begins to bless us and we start thinking, “What am I going to do with this?” When we start going down the road of wondering what to do with our resources, selfishness usually follows. Look at the language here: “And he thought to himself, What shall I do, for I have nowhere to store my crops?”
Whose crops (blessings) are they? They belong to God—everything belongs to God! So this man’s mind was becoming selfish. He was beginning to see the gifts from God, the relationships, the talents, as things that could be used for his own benefit, and selfishness began to permeate the very fiber of who he was.
“And he said, I will do this: I will tear down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I will say to my soul, Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.”
We must be very careful when we hear preaching about the blessings of God. Our perception of His blessings is vitally important. Do we want to heap blessings on ourselves in order to create a perfect little cocoon for our comfort and enjoyment? Or do we want to look around us and bless others? We are blessed from the very beginning of God’s covenant of blessing with mankind—blessed to be a blessing!