It is More Blessed to Give than Receive—R Fritz
These are the words Jesus spoke in Acts 20:35 “I have shewed you all things, how that so labouring ye ought to support the weak, and to remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he said, “It is blessed to give than to receive.” Jesus said that because that is what he did to show his love for us. God sent Jesus his only begotten son to take our sentence for death. That is what had to be done so we could spend eternity with God. We could not overcome sin until the Holy Spirit was sent after Jesus died to live in us. We must choose Jesus with a decision and then actions to prove we were serious. Sin has put blinders over our eyes, so we do not see the truth. Jesus came to take the blinders off so we can see the truth for ourselves. Sometimes if enough people talk to us about Jesus and what he has done in their life we believe he can do it in our life. Sometimes we must be dragged down till we hit bottom for us to see that even though our life is terrible we are afraid to change. Is it we do not see when we are under water or do we need help so when a lifeline presents itself, we will not take it.
That is pride telling us we can do life ourselves. The Bible speaks of “pride comes before the fall.” Proverbs 16:18-20 says “Pride goeth before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall. Better it is to be of a humble spirit with the lowly, than to divide the spoil with the proud. He that handleth a matter wisely shall find good: and whoso trusteth in the LORD, happy is he.” What the Holy Spirit is showing me is pride causes the fall, not that fall causes pride. We believe too much in ourselves because we have done that most of our lives. The other thing we do is dependent on other people who sound like they know a lot. Some of these people do but nobody knows more than God. We do not trust God because we do not know him. We find God two ways studying the Bible about God and his character, the other way is through the Holy Spirit revealing himself through things that we go through or a combination of both. God knows each one of us, he is constantly speaking to us through our thoughts but are we listening, or do we not know his voice through our thoughts?
God’s nature is love and when we choose Jesus the Holy Spirit changes our nature with God’s Spirit. The Holy Spirit shows that love gives us to want to give because we have that good feeling which overcomes depression and other diseases. God blesses those who bless other people. Jesus taught us to be a blessing to somebody. We are supposed to love our neighbor as ourselves. Matthew 22:37-40 says, and this is Jesus speaking Jesus said to them, “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.” All the other commandments are tied to these two, with love being the basis for all of them. When we give to somebody, we have a tie to them as we can see how our gift has changed their life. When we pray for somebody, we have a spiritual stake in their life and the Holy Spirit will remind us of it, so we keep blessing them. People sometimes do not understand who Jesus meant as their neighbor, it is not who we live next to, it is everybody we contact. People sometimes make it hard to love them because of how they respond to other people. These people do not know love (Jesus) they are living through the life they were given sometimes through things that were not their fault.
God wants to bless us, he loves us, but we make that decision whether we will accept his love. If we cannot accept his love, we need to look at ourselves and our past to see what makes us not understand God’s love which is given freely. Fear stops our ability to love then we lose our confidence in everything we do. We keep looking at our past and because of our failures we expect our future is destined to be the same. Jesus came to set us free from our past because our future became brighter in every aspect of our life when we chose Jesus. I chose Jesus so my future would change, I did not see anything from my past including people that could change that. Fear was part of my life for fifty years; I could not overcome it. When I started to study the Bible and fear, the answers were in the Bible, shown to me by the Holy Spirit. It is a spiritual battle, which is why I could not find people to overcome problems. What I saw was the battles were all spiritual and when I talked to people nobody knew how to fight in the spirit, they just told me I had to fight in the spirit. The Holy Spirit gave me the answers with me looking for them. One thing I learned was I needed to look for myself, it was not going to change without me wanting the answers and doing something to change my issues. If we believe that means we are willing to do something. Belief requires action, it is not sitting and waiting for somebody else to do something. There are times we need to wait on God when we are told to. Our relationship with the Holy Spirit is enriched when we trust the Holy Spirit because the answers reside in us through the Holy Spirit. When we surrender completely, which is ongoing, our spirits become one. The things the Holy Spirit wants us to do stop fear because we see fear in the spirit and apply the verses that stop it immediately. This is what happens to me. 2 Corinthians 10:4-5 says (For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds; Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ;” These two verses stop fear or every thought that does not obey Jesus. I was shown these verses by the Holy Spirit and used them to stop fear immediately.
God blesses those that diligently seek him. Hebrews 11:6 says, “But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.” This verse speaks about those that seek God he rewards, that is what happens to me because I want to know God. Everybody has that same opportunity we just need to diligently seek him. Let us be that person who wants to know God and is not afraid to do it. God Bless.
