REFLECTIONS by Jeremy Alger

Would you like an additional dose of God’s presence? Would you like some more holy wisdom? Could I interest you in a little more of God’s blessing?

I bet that you said yes to at least one of those. Even if you don’t know that you’ve experienced any of those things before we all understand what blessing is, and we will always accept more of it. So yes, I’ll have little more please.

It occurred to me that God has given all the presence, wisdom, and blessing that He needs you to have today. You hear Jesus pointing out the way that God gives provisions in what we call the Lord’s Prayer. “Give us this day our daily bread…” That is what Jesus taught us to pray. We don’t ask for a nest egg. We don’t even ask for our weekly groceries. Just our daily bread.

We all know that if you give a man a fish you feed him for a day, but if you teach him to fish you feed him for a lifetime. Jesus is telling us that God wants us to come back tomorrow with fresh needs. God isn’t looking to fill your gas tank and let you drive away. He wants us to stay within reach. He wants us in a relationship with Him that requires repeated or even constant contact.

Jesus teaches us to pray for today today, and then tomorrow we will pray for tomorrow.

So now back to this idea of more presence, wisdom and blessing. God gives enough for today. But if you want more I do have another way to get it.

It will simply require you to go somewhere or do something new. Somewhere that you aren’t already equipped to be or doing something that you aren’t already equipped to do.

God provides His presence, wisdom and blessing to accomplish the work that His beloved children are doing.

If you are unsatisfied with the amount of those gifts that you are receiving, I wonder how God might feel about the tasks that you are doing which require so little from Him. Have you ever helped someone that you truly love? Isn’t it a joy to enable and encourage someone who you care about as they do something that they enjoy and are passionate about?

Can you imagine the galactic level of joy that God must get from seeing and helping us as we take our proverbial first steps in service to Him and His Kingdom? His book is full of promises that He will enable and provide for you on your journey of faith. The amount just seems to line up with the need. His blessing is capped by your need.

There is a gambler’s idea that applies here, the less you bet the more you lose when you win. If you aren’t making aggressive or dynamic moves in the direction of serving God then when He faithfully shows up to provide for you what He provides won’t need to be very much. But if you put it all on the line in service to the King He will reward your act of faith with blessings only the Almighty could afford!

Jeremy Alger is the pastor of the New Cumberland Church of the Nazarene. They meet in person and online every Sunday. For more information please visit www.newcumberlandnazarene.com