I'm going to give you a list of some Scriptures and I will let you decide what the common denominator is and what the point of these words of God is.
Job 42:10 The Lord restored Job’s prosperity after he prayed for his friends. The Lord doubled everything that Job had once possessed
2 Chron. 1:7 That very night God appeared to Solomon and told him, “Ask what I am to give you. ...
12 wisdom and knowledge have been granted to you. Furthermore, I will give you riches, wealth, and honor—such as none of the kings owned who lived before you and none after you are to ever attain their equal.”
God gave Solomon wisdom and great discernment. His insights were as numerous as sand on the seashore. Solomon was wiser than any of the eastern leaders and wiser than anyone in Egypt. He was wiser than anyone of his day—1 Kings 4:29-31a
James 1:5 If you need wisdom ask our generous God and he will give it to you. He will not rebuke you for asking.
Since he did not spare even his own Son but gave him up for us all, won’t he also give us everything else? Rom 8;32
Luke 6:38 ISV
Give, and it will be given to you. A large quantity, pressed together, shaken down, and running over will be put into your lap, because you’ll be evaluated by the same standard with which you evaluate others.”
Did you find it? The common denominator in these Scriptures is God's generosity to his people. It just seemed to me that lately each one of these passages has come from either my project of reading the Chronological Bible this year, or from passages that I have been memorizing ...or just passages that have come to mind. There is a saying "You cannot out give God" and we see from these chapters that that certainly is true. But, did you notice? The last passage listed (Luke 6:38) there is a qualifier: "GIVE and it will be given to you" God blessed Solomon because Solomon pleased God by not asking for wealth but for wisdom to rule Israel well. Job was blessed because of the way he handled extreme suffering without blaming or cursing God.
If you look at the bigger picture in James 1:5-7, you will see that when we ask God for the wisdom we need daily, the requirement is that we implicitly trust God to answer us and to give us what he has promised. We must trust, without doubting because those who doubt are as unstable as a wave in the ocean, "Such people should not expect to receive anything from the Lord." (vs 7)
In fact all of the above passages have some kind of qualifier--always very small in comparison to the benefit that God will shower upon us. This is true of all the passages except for Romans 8:32. If you read the surrounding verses you will see that God showered his blessings on us through the gift of his Son. The very life of God himself, was poured out on the cross for us...and we could do nothing to earn this....
Romans 6:23
For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in union with the Messiah Jesus our Lord.
The only thing God requires of us is to believe in the blessings God offers us through his Son...to accept that there is nothing we can do about our sin and rebellion towards God and then to joyfully receive the gift of life that comes as a result of our being made right with God by Jesus's blood. In fact, if you read the above passages in context--there is only one way we can please God and that is by humble faith in his goodness and love toward us.
So let's bring it home.
When we need something from God....greater faith, wisdom, our daily needs....all we have to do is to ask God by the value of his promises toward us, and believe that we will receive what we need...this is assuming of course that you are coming to God as one of his children--that you have made God to be your Father and for Jesus to be your Savior. If this is true of you, then you can come to your Abba God and tell him what you need.
Please note that I am not proposing a "name it and claim it" type of faith because that is just not a valid interpretation of Scripture. But God has made promises and we can ask and expect him to move to fulfill those promises. This does not always come to pass in the way we may be expecting. God sometimes answers us in surprising ways that can only be understood by looking back at the way things have turned out in response to our prayers. Retrospect will prove God to have been faithful to all of his promises to us and in a much better way than we could have formulated for ourselves.
Sometimes don't we fear bringing our needs to God? Like he is too busy to be concerned about our needs. Like he is reluctant to bless us because of the ways we have messed things up....Like we have nothing to offer him in return--not even a good reason why he should hear our prayer. Look back at Romans 8:32. He has already given us the gift that cost him more than we can ever comprehend...he put his own Son....His own SELF on that cross in order to be able to grant us life abundant and eternal by the value of his blood being poured out on our behalf. Like Roman 6:23 says, it is a FREE GIFT --all that we have to do is to understand that it is truly ours, and that we are powerless to pay for it in any way and then to joyfully accept the gift from his hands.
Understand this my friend: we are spiritually bankrupt. Our hands are empty of anything that could bribe God to hear our prayers and requests. But bribery is unnecessary. We do not have to convince God to help us... or pay for his assistance and blessing. He gives it willingly. He gave his Son willingly...even though it caused him deep pain that we cannot understand--even those who have lost children, cannot fully grasp the deep cost of pain that Jesus's death caused the Father. But no one had to talk him into it. It was a gift he gave willingly....the Bible says in Hebrews "For the joy set before him Jesus endured the cross." What was that Joy? It is the joy of Creator completing his Creation. It was to have union and fellowship with us forever, finally freed of the curse of sin and death.
Let me close by saying that the best way we can respond to God's goodness to us is through humble gratitude. Nothing angers God more than an ungrateful, unthankful heart. Rejoice in God's gifts...but do not value the gifts over the Giver. With every blessing that comes your way, see the smiling face of God behind it. And when hardship comes, do not "curse God and die" as Job's wife suggested. Look for the hug in the heartache. God will never leave you or forsake you. And everything that comes our way---even troubles (Jas 1:2-3)--have purpose and benefit. Believe this in faith, without wavering (Jas 1:6) because this pleases God. And in due time, he will lift you up.
Job 42:10 The Lord restored Job’s prosperity after he prayed for his friends. The Lord doubled everything that Job had once possessed
2 Chron. 1:7 That very night God appeared to Solomon and told him, “Ask what I am to give you. ...
12 wisdom and knowledge have been granted to you. Furthermore, I will give you riches, wealth, and honor—such as none of the kings owned who lived before you and none after you are to ever attain their equal.”
God gave Solomon wisdom and great discernment. His insights were as numerous as sand on the seashore. Solomon was wiser than any of the eastern leaders and wiser than anyone in Egypt. He was wiser than anyone of his day—1 Kings 4:29-31a
James 1:5 If you need wisdom ask our generous God and he will give it to you. He will not rebuke you for asking.
Since he did not spare even his own Son but gave him up for us all, won’t he also give us everything else? Rom 8;32
Luke 6:38 ISV
Give, and it will be given to you. A large quantity, pressed together, shaken down, and running over will be put into your lap, because you’ll be evaluated by the same standard with which you evaluate others.”
Did you find it? The common denominator in these Scriptures is God's generosity to his people. It just seemed to me that lately each one of these passages has come from either my project of reading the Chronological Bible this year, or from passages that I have been memorizing ...or just passages that have come to mind. There is a saying "You cannot out give God" and we see from these chapters that that certainly is true. But, did you notice? The last passage listed (Luke 6:38) there is a qualifier: "GIVE and it will be given to you" God blessed Solomon because Solomon pleased God by not asking for wealth but for wisdom to rule Israel well. Job was blessed because of the way he handled extreme suffering without blaming or cursing God.
If you look at the bigger picture in James 1:5-7, you will see that when we ask God for the wisdom we need daily, the requirement is that we implicitly trust God to answer us and to give us what he has promised. We must trust, without doubting because those who doubt are as unstable as a wave in the ocean, "Such people should not expect to receive anything from the Lord." (vs 7)
In fact all of the above passages have some kind of qualifier--always very small in comparison to the benefit that God will shower upon us. This is true of all the passages except for Romans 8:32. If you read the surrounding verses you will see that God showered his blessings on us through the gift of his Son. The very life of God himself, was poured out on the cross for us...and we could do nothing to earn this....
Romans 6:23
For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in union with the Messiah Jesus our Lord.
The only thing God requires of us is to believe in the blessings God offers us through his Son...to accept that there is nothing we can do about our sin and rebellion towards God and then to joyfully receive the gift of life that comes as a result of our being made right with God by Jesus's blood. In fact, if you read the above passages in context--there is only one way we can please God and that is by humble faith in his goodness and love toward us.
So let's bring it home.
When we need something from God....greater faith, wisdom, our daily needs....all we have to do is to ask God by the value of his promises toward us, and believe that we will receive what we need...this is assuming of course that you are coming to God as one of his children--that you have made God to be your Father and for Jesus to be your Savior. If this is true of you, then you can come to your Abba God and tell him what you need.
Please note that I am not proposing a "name it and claim it" type of faith because that is just not a valid interpretation of Scripture. But God has made promises and we can ask and expect him to move to fulfill those promises. This does not always come to pass in the way we may be expecting. God sometimes answers us in surprising ways that can only be understood by looking back at the way things have turned out in response to our prayers. Retrospect will prove God to have been faithful to all of his promises to us and in a much better way than we could have formulated for ourselves.
Sometimes don't we fear bringing our needs to God? Like he is too busy to be concerned about our needs. Like he is reluctant to bless us because of the ways we have messed things up....Like we have nothing to offer him in return--not even a good reason why he should hear our prayer. Look back at Romans 8:32. He has already given us the gift that cost him more than we can ever comprehend...he put his own Son....His own SELF on that cross in order to be able to grant us life abundant and eternal by the value of his blood being poured out on our behalf. Like Roman 6:23 says, it is a FREE GIFT --all that we have to do is to understand that it is truly ours, and that we are powerless to pay for it in any way and then to joyfully accept the gift from his hands.
Understand this my friend: we are spiritually bankrupt. Our hands are empty of anything that could bribe God to hear our prayers and requests. But bribery is unnecessary. We do not have to convince God to help us... or pay for his assistance and blessing. He gives it willingly. He gave his Son willingly...even though it caused him deep pain that we cannot understand--even those who have lost children, cannot fully grasp the deep cost of pain that Jesus's death caused the Father. But no one had to talk him into it. It was a gift he gave willingly....the Bible says in Hebrews "For the joy set before him Jesus endured the cross." What was that Joy? It is the joy of Creator completing his Creation. It was to have union and fellowship with us forever, finally freed of the curse of sin and death.
Let me close by saying that the best way we can respond to God's goodness to us is through humble gratitude. Nothing angers God more than an ungrateful, unthankful heart. Rejoice in God's gifts...but do not value the gifts over the Giver. With every blessing that comes your way, see the smiling face of God behind it. And when hardship comes, do not "curse God and die" as Job's wife suggested. Look for the hug in the heartache. God will never leave you or forsake you. And everything that comes our way---even troubles (Jas 1:2-3)--have purpose and benefit. Believe this in faith, without wavering (Jas 1:6) because this pleases God. And in due time, he will lift you up.
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