FROM WHOM ALL BLESSINGS FLOW
“Take what you can get…and don’t give anything back!” From what I remember of Pirates of the Caribbean, this was some sort of motto that Captain Jack and his first mate lived by. It wasn’t the pirate code per se but a rule of life.
Unfortunately it sounds a lot like the culture code of our North American lifestyle. Take what you can get and don’t just give it away. Think about that for a second. When you are downtown in Winnipeg and a panhandler begs for a loonie, what do you think? I earned this money and I am not going to just give it to some bum who is going to spend it on booze or Lysol. We work, we earn our money, and it galls us to think that some people just sit there with their hands out.
Take what you can get and don’t give anything back. For those of a non-religious background and mindset this is the code of life. But it is a code that will lead to stagnation of the soul.
Consider the laws of nature in this regard. A body of water that has no fresh inflow and no apparent outsource will eventually become a cesspool of disease. The water is no good for drinking or irrigation. It’s only use is to become a haven for unusual creatures that grow in that malaise. But a lake with a constant inflow and outflow stays fresh and is home to fish and birds and quaint little cottages. The law of nature suggests that which receives and gives will be beautiful and useful.
The law of God concurs. It is a biblical truth that when those who receive with gratitude understand the gift they will turn and give to others. This is a law, not so much in the commandment sense, but in how life works best. If you want to get the best out of life then you must conform to the pattern that God has laid out for us. Hoarding and guarding our possession leads to stagnation spiritually and holistically.
We find this truth in the history lessons of Israel in Deuteronomy 8. This is the theological foundation for learning to be gracious receivers and gracious givers.
1. Remembering to thank God
The book of Deuteronomy is a record of God’s law spoken again to the people of Israel. That’s what the title means: “second law” or a second telling of the law. Israel had heard the Law before but now they stood on the brink of entering the Promised Land. After 40 years of wandering in the desert God was going to bring his people into the land. In preparation Moses reminded them of God’s commandments. You have to imagine the thoughts going through Moses’ mind. He might have said, “Just before we crossed the Red Sea you guys began complaining and pining for the comforts of Egypt. Then we crossed the Sea in a great miracle and no sooner had the waters returned you were complaining about water and food and wishing you were dead. Bread from heaven rained down on us but you worried that it might not come tomorrow. Then when I went up the mountain to receive God’s law, I return to find you worshiping a golden calf.
Listen, God has been forgiving and gracious, but now as we stand in a new place, we must think about how far we have been brought by God and how much he has given us. If we forget, there is a terrible cost we can ill afford.”
Here in chapter 8 of Deuteronomy we have a call to remember these things. Moses was very concerned that they enter the Promised Land with thankful hearts. Note his repeated warnings: v. 1 “Be careful…” v. 2 “Remember…” v. 6 “observe,” v. 11 “Be careful and do not forget,” v. 18 “Remember,” and vv. 19-20 “if you forget.”
Above all, Moses was trying to engrain in their minds who was the source of all their blessings. “When you have eaten and are satisfied, praise the LORD your God for the good land he has given you. Be careful that you do not forget the LORD your God, failing to observe his commands, his laws and his decrees that I am giving you this day” (10-11).
A grateful heart will not forget the source of these good things. Gratitude is an expression of modesty. In Hebrew, the word for gratitude is the same word for confession. To offer thanks is to confess dependence, to admit that others have the ability to benefit you, that they have made your life better by their efforts.
Perhaps you have wondered why we say a prayer of blessing before each meal we eat. I know some believers who see it as legalistic and mere tradition and so have abandoned the practice. God knows I’m thankful, they say. And yet if we think about it and are sincere in our custom, we will recognize that it breeds a habit of thankfulness in us. People who thank God before each meal are practicing gratitude and are opening the door to gladness in their lives. Some faith traditions pray before and after the meal…I suppose they are thankful they survived the experience.
Jeff Jacoby wrote, “If you never give a moment’s thought to the fact that your health is good, that your children are well-fed, that your home is comfortable, if you assume that the good things in your life are normal and to be expected, you diminish the happiness they can bring you. By contrast, if you train yourself to reflect on how much worse off you could be, if you develop the custom of counting your blessings and being grateful for them, you will fill your life with cheer.”
There is wisdom in these words. The secret to happiness is gratitude. Complaining leads to unhappiness while grateful people tend to be happier people. Moses wanted more than happiness for his people, he wanted them to praise God for full bellies, for fertile land, and for the peace to till that land. Remember to thank God, the source of all good things.
2. Reasons we might forget God
What were the dangers that loomed so large in Moses’ mind? Why did he think they would forget to thank God for all the good things they received? There were three distinct dangers mentioned in this passage, dangers that are more than relevant for us as well.
a) Prosperity – Moses recognized that prosperity was a major threat to a grateful heart. “Otherwise, when you eat and are satisfied, when you build fine houses and settle down, and when your herds and flocks grow large and your silver and gold increase and all you have is multiplied, then your heart will become proud…” (12-14a).
Do you find that counting your blessings becomes harder when there are too many to count? The smaller blessings get overwhelmed by the bigger and more numerous blessings of life. It is very difficult to acknowledge our blessings when there are so many that they are overflowing into landfills regarded as worthless junk.
We did some spring cleaning when the kids had Spring Break and cleaned out a lot of stuff. Closets were purged of the unnecessaries. We had bags of clothes for MCC and bags of garbage for the landfill. There was even a 27 inch TV that had sat outside all winter because it had died. Take a trip to the dump and I am sure you will see piles of blessings that no one wanted anymore.
As we possess more and more we may become immune to gratitude but there is another side effect: a busyness that chokes our time. The more stuff we have the less time we have for God and others. Abundance makes us busier people with little time for church or fellowship. You would think we had more leisure time than any of the previous generations, yet we can’t find time to connect with old friends.
Prosperity can cloud our gratitude and steal our time. Moses was afraid that his people would fall into this pit of satisfaction and spiritual contentment.
b) Pride – Prosperity can lead to pride. The two are so connected they are really one, but I wanted to deal briefly with pride on its own. As it continues in v. 14, “…then your heart will become proud, and you will forget the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.”
Pride emerging out of prosperity will cause us to forget what God has done for us. With Israel it blinded them to the miracle of the Exodus, to the trek across an unforgiving wilderness, and to the provision of God to do such a thing. God gave them manna, Moses says in v. 16, to humble them, to show them that God would provide in times of want and in times of plenty.
Something about having enough and more than enough brings out a feeling of self-reliance. With that feeling we also adopt a sense of spiritual satisfaction. We have plenty of food to eat, possessions all around us, a happy family…we must be doing well in our walk of faith. Numbness to our constant need to keep walking with the Lord sets in and we forget that God is still the source of all these good things.
c) Personal Accomplishment – It is no surprise that pride is closely connected to the feeling of personal accomplishment. Moses perceived that they would say “My power and the strength of my hands have produced this wealth for me” (17).
What defines us in society? Our work, what we do, what we earn and what we have. It is a pride that is based not in what a person is, but what a person has. The stuff that we accumulate defines our worth and when we have a lot of it, our worth is overvalued. When we live in this kind of narcisistic egomania, where is God to be found? God becomes insignificant and a distant thought in terms of gratitude. This pride says: “I am important,” “I count,” and “I am!” And we replace the great “I AM” with ourselves.
We forget that there is a deep connection between our hard work and God’s abundant provision. The farmer plants the seed and sprays the herbicides, but God sends the rain and the sunshine and makes the seed grow. Yes the farmer harvests but there would be no harvest without God. Our skills, our product, our overtime, our 60 hour weeks are nothing without God who provides the market for those God-given qualities. We think prosperity is something that we have accomplished. We take credit for our wealth, our success, our market strategies and our insights. This is blindness for it is God who gives us the ability to work, to earn and to succeed.
As Moses said, “But remember the LORD your God, for it is he who gives you the ability to produce wealth, and so confirms his covenant, which he swore to your forefathers, as it is today” (18).
One might conclude that God was ultimately afraid of being forgotten in the abundance and wealth of the land. And that would be a fair but one-sided understanding. The other side of this coin is that God wanted the people to prosper and succeed and know joy, and if they lost their sense of gratitude, they would become miserable. He is concerned about our joy, folks!
3. Rationale for giving
On this theological foundation we find a basis for giving. For giving is one very important way to maintain a heart of gratitude. Giving back to the Lord is recognition of his provision. It is worship in every sense.
What does giving to the Lord look like?
For David and his people it was presenting an offering to the LORD for building a place of worship. When the people had sacrificed and brought precious items, gold, silver and other useful things, he offered a prayer of thanks to God. We find this prayer in 1 Chronicles 29:11-14 (turn there).
That last verse is really profound. Who are we that we should be able to give as generously as this? It is a humble confession that God is the source and we can only give to God what he has given to us.
Yes, what the people gave in offerings went into a temple that they would benefit from. Yes, it was a physical token of a spiritual blessing. But in their hearts it was a humble sacrifice of praise.
What else does giving to the Lord look like?
When the people of God were in need, the Apostle Paul went to the Corinthian church for an offering. He knew that this was a church that was exceptional in its spiritual giftedness, but he challenged them further. He said, “But just as you excel in everything – in faith, in speech, in knowledge, in complete earnestness and in your love for us – see that you also excel in this grace of giving” (2 Cor 8:7). He added that he was not commanding them to do this but appealed to their love for Christ. “For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich” (2 Cor 8:9).
Paul appeals to the example of Jesus as our motivation to give, in this case to brothers and sisters in need, but in other cases, perhaps to those who are proclaiming Jesus. If we become poor through our giving it would be a pale imitation of our wonderful Lord.
Jesus said, “Freely you have received, freely give” (Matt 10:8). That is a tough command for North Americans and for Kleefelders today.
Tony Campolo tells of being invited to speak at a ladies meeting. There were 300 women there. Before he spoke the president of the organization read a letter from a missionary. It was a very moving letter.
In the letter the missionary expressed a need for $4,000 to take care of an emergency that had cropped up. So the president of the organization said, "We need to pray that God will provide the resources to meet the need of this missionary. Brother Campolo will you please pray for us?"
Tony Campolo, who is very outspoken said, "No." Startled, she said, "I beg your pardon."
He said, "No, I won’t pray for that." He said, "I believe that God has already provided the resources & that all we need to do is give. Tell you what I’m going to do. I’m going to step up to this table & give every bit of cash I have in my pocket. And if all of you will do the same thing, I think God has already provided the resources."
The president of the organization chuckled a little bit & said, "Well, I guess we get the point. He is trying to teach us that we all need to give sacrificially."
He said, "No, that is not what I am trying to teach you. I’m trying to teach you that God has already provided for this missionary. All we need to do is give it. Here, I’m going to put down all of my money I have with me."
He wrote, "I only had $15 in my pocket so I wasn’t too worried about that." So he put down his $15 & then looked at the president of the organization. Reluctantly, she opened her purse & took out all of her money, which was about $40, & put it on the table. One by one the rest of the ladies filed by & put their money on the table, too. When the money was counted they had collected more than $4,000."
Tony Campolo said, "Now, here’s the lesson. God always supplies for our needs, & he supplied for this missionary, too. The only problem was we were keeping it for ourselves. Now let’s pray & thank God for His provision."
The law of nature shows us that when there is an inflow it is beneficial to have an outflow. God has given us all that we possess including our lives. How does it flow out of our selves?
You have been to McDonald’s more times than you care to remember. Usually it is your children who notice those accursed golden arches. You used to be able to eat for five dollars as a family there. Okay that was in the 70’s. So you have taken your kids there and handed over a pile of money that you earned for Rotten Ronnie’s famous horse burgers. At least the fries are exceptional. Those fries you scarf down like air because they are so good. Then you spy your son’s fries. He’s young enough that you distract him with that imaginary pink poodle just outside the window. He catches what you have done and says with steely eyes, “Dad, don’t take my fries!”
His fries? His fries? Who earned the money for the meal? Who drove the car to get to Rotten Ronnie’s? Who ordered the meal? Who paid for it? His fries?
You have had this experience haven’t you? But how often do we refuse to give God some of our fries? Isn’t he the provider of all our French fries?
Praise God from whom all blessings flow!!!
AMEN
