Praise the Lord, we can be generous! @BethanyMcIlrath
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We Have A Supply to Give From

“Now he who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will also supply and increase your store of seed and will enlarge the harvest of your righteousness.” –2 Corinthians 9:10

Sometimes we feel like we can’t afford to be generous. But our supply is ample. God himself provides for us!

We Can Give Because God Gives

“You will be enriched in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion.” –2 Corinthians 9:11

God enriches us in every way so that we can cheerfully give of what He so freely gives us.

One of the great privileges of being a child of God is that we are abundantly blessed with so many limitless gifts- all of which God intends for us to share.

We are…

Blessed to be a blessing.

Forgiven to be forgiving.

Graced to give grace.

Loved to love.

Our Generosity is an Expression of Thanks

“This service that you perform is not only supplying the needs of the Lord’s people but is also overflowing in many expressions of thanks to God.” –2 Corinthians 9:12

When we give of what God has so freely given us, we’re demonstrating thankfulness to God too. He gives such good gifts, with so much abundance, that we overflow expressing our praise.

We’ll Never Run Out of Something to Give

 “Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift!” –2 Corinthians 9:15

The truth is- we’ll never run out of reasons to be thankful to God. So, we’ll never run out of something to give. The source of life Himself lives in us!

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LINKUP party is open with@BethanyMcIlrath - We are… Blessed to be a blessing. Forgiven to be forgiving. Graced to give grace. Loved to love. Our Generosity is an Expression of Thanks. JOIN us?
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The post Why We Can be Generous {Recharge Wednesday LINKUP} appeared first on Soaring With Him Ministries.

The pilgrims came here seeking freedom of you know what. 

When they landed, they gave thanks to you know who. 

Because of them, we can worship each Sunday you know where.

A fourth grader’s report on the first Thanksgiving when the classroom teacher requested students make no reference to God (source unknown).

While believers remain disturbed about Christmas devoid of God, what about the holiday before the birth of Christ?

How Do We Find and Keep God in Thanksgiving?

Because the holiday celebrates more than gobbling up turkey.

Look at these definitions for gobble:

1) The sound a male turkey makes.

2) To eat, devour, grab or use something up in a speedy or greedy way.

And some definitions also cite to eat noisily. That’s another article on etiquette. Please try not to do this at the Thanksgiving table.

“To gobble” suggests:

• An action without reflection beforehand.
• No careful consideration of the devoured item.
• No gratefulness of where the means derived.
• A general lack of thankfulness for the provision.

To really give thanks, maybe like the first Thanksgiving, we are grateful for our “haves” without begrudging our “have-nots.”

To really give thanks, we are grateful for our haves without begrudging our have-nots. #thankful @FridayKaren
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Thankful for the cornucopia of many blessings received and yet to be given from our Maker. As with the pilgrims, we carry a thankful heart for the place we’ve landed, whatever it looks like for each of us.

Abundant Provision and Freedom

We see ample cynicism in the media, government and society…perhaps in us. There’s a lot of ungrateful gobbling going on.

Still, we rise above the negativity when we remember this truth: We always have plenty to be thankful for.

Yet, sometimes we lose sight of giving thanks for freedoms. And no matter how we have to say it, like in the fourth grader’s report, we do say it, and we carry thankfulness in our heart. You see, thanksgiving—real thanksgiving in our heart—overflows in gratitude more than one day a year. A continual gratefulness that defines our lives and our character.

Often a sigh of relief is spoken with, “Thank God!” Maybe we received good news from a medical report or found out our loved one wasn’t hurt in an accident. Wonderful things to be thankful for.

Not just as a relief that something turned out good in the end. But thanking God, that in the end, we understand all good things come from Him.

Gobbling and Fullness

So before gobbling up a turkey leg or piece of pumpkin pie this Thanksgiving, contemplate the fullness in our lives because of a generous God. Then consider how we show ourselves as a generous people. What does it look like in daily life? How is grateful and generous displayed in our communities and in our world?

Grateful people are generous people. Generous people are grateful people. #grateful @FridayKaren
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Generosity helps others, models Jesus and shows the world true gratefulness and thankfulness. Do we serve the hungry, the homeless and those without basic needs—the “least of these?” (Matthew 25:35-40).

And this Thanksgiving season, thank God for fullness of stomach, life, love, family, freedoms and for every spiritual blessing in Christ (Ephesians 1:3). Not only giving thanks on turkey day and in November…giving thanks all year long.

“Enter into His gates with thanksgiving and a thank offering and into His courts with praise! Be thankful and say so to Him, bless and affectionately praise His name! For the Lord is good; His mercy and loving-kindness are everlasting, His faithfulness and truth endure to all generations” Psalm 100:4-5 AMP.

Link up is open! Join @FridayKaren today to discover how to find and keep God in Thanksgiving. Are we thankful for the cornucopia of many blessings received and yet to be given from our Maker? JOIN us and share your blog.
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The post Finding God in Thanksgiving {Recharge Wednesday LINKUP} appeared first on Soaring With Him Ministries.

Before you start reading this beautiful post, let me introduce you to my new friend Bethany McIIrath. 

I had been looking for a new contributor for our Wednesday Linkup parties for several weeks, praying and asking God to show me who to invite. I browsed several blogs. Looks at several statements of faith. Prayed and prayed, and for several weeks did not have that green light from the Holy Spirit… until I came across this sweet, godly young lady. After talking to her and both of us praying about it, God confirmed that she is the answer to my prayers!

Please take a moment to read the “About Bethany” at the end of this post, make sure to follow her on Social Media and visit her beautiful blog. You will be blessed! Don’t forget to linkup your recent post with us. 

Thankful for each of you,

Patricia

Two men, many years apart in history, were blessed with abundance. With more bounty than they could enjoy at the time of harvest, the men stored up the excess in granaries. They heaped up God’s provision and saved it for another time.

There was a significant difference between the two, though.

One man was generous with abundance.

The other stored up his wealth for himself.

A Wise Reject

Exodus 41 tells the first story. In it, a farmer turned slave turned wrongly-incarcerated-prisoner became a ruler because God gave him the interpretation of a dream. This man, learning from God that God would give abundance for 7 years and then famine, stored up grain to preserve a nation. He praised God for making Him fruitful.

Joseph stored up grain with wisdom and was generous.

So, God’s chosen people were fed through the famine. Not-starved, they were on track for God’s plan to reveal His might to them and display His glory to all the world.

A Rich Fool

We read the parable of the second man in Luke 12, where he is dubbed “the rich fool.” The fool’s ground yielded more crops than expected. He didn’t have room to store them. So, he planned to raze his old granaries and raise up new ones for the surplus. Then, he intended to take it easy- his hard work (AKA his God-given ground) had paid off.

God proclaims the man a fool, pointing out that the man has not prepared himself for eternity. Further, God highlights that it’s vain to store up for ourselves instead of being rich toward God.

Our Abundance and Our Attitude

Like the two men, we have been blessed with abundance.

Like these men, we have a choice over our attitude about what God’s given us.

God likens our hearts to storage space. He urges us to guard them as Joseph did the granary. We’re also told that in Christ, our hearts are fill with abundance, even overflowing with living water from the Holy Spirit.

Often, we see our spiritual opulence as pay-off for our hard work though. The more we’re blessed with peace and joy, the more we tear away at our hearts to find more space to cram His love in. We aren’t sure we have enough and worry we won’t be able to take it easy.

Even if we don’t feel rich, we are affluent if we know Jesus.
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Through Christ, we:

• Receive the incomparable riches of His grace (Eph 2:7)
• Are strengthened with the glorious riches of the Spirit (Eph 3:16)
• Get paid in humility leading to long life and honor (Prov 22:4)
• Have access to the everlasting throne and God himself (Heb 4:16)
• Can have the full riches of understanding (Col 1:27; 2:2)
• Find our needs completely met by the riches of His glory (Phil 4:19)

Though rich in Christ, we still count our costs as if He isn’t also our security. We weigh out our patience and grace like the supply is limited. Every ounce we give to another is measured to ensure we have enough saved up to enjoy for ourselves.

We store up God’s fruit for ourselves but are not rich towards Him- but what He yields in us is for His using! The stores in our hearts are filled to overflow on purpose.

There’s no need to fear scarcity and no wisdom in hoarding- our abundance in Christ is more than excessive- it’s endless. We can steward and share His goodness freely.

Do you recognize your riches in Christ? Does your heart pour His abundance on others?

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The post A Tale of Two Men (And Their Riches) {Recharge Wednesday LINKUP} appeared first on Soaring With Him Ministries.