blog
Email  |  My Account  |  Donate
Based on what we know about the rest of the world and how they live, would you consider those of us living in America to be unusually blessed? I think we'd all have to admit that our country has been blessed by God. That's wonderful—but with blessing comes responsibility.

If we want to take those responsibilities seriously, we'd be wise to look at the four laws of God's blessing:

Our Blessings Should Flow to Others
Some people have the mindset that God has blessed them just so they can be happy and comfortable. But that's not so. The Bible teaches us that we are blessed so that we will bless others. God's promise to Abraham in Genesis 12:2 (NCV) was: "I will bless you...and you will be a blessing to others." Blessings must flow outwardly.

When We Bless Others, God Takes Care of Our Needs
There's almost nothing God won't do for the person who really wants to help other people. In fact, God guarantees a particular blessing for the one who is willing to share what he's been given instead of hoarding his wealth.

In Luke Jesus said,
I can guarantee this truth: Anyone who gave up his home, wife, brothers, parents, or children because of the kingdom of God will certainly receive many times as much in this life and will receive eternal life in the world to come.
(Luke 18:29-30 GW)
When you care about helping other people, God assumes responsibility for your problems. And that's a real blessing, for he's much better at handling your difficulties than you are.

Our Blessings to Others Will Come Back On Us
Luke 6:38 (MSG) tells us, "Give away your life; you'll find life given back, but not merely given back—given back with bonus and blessing." The more you try to bless other people in the world around you the more God says, "I'm going to pour blessings out on you. We'll play a little game here. Let's see who will win. Let's see who can give the most. The more you bless others the more I'm going to bless you in return."

You cannot out give God.

More is Expected of Those Who Have More
Jesus said it this way in Luke 12:48b (LB): "Much is required from those to whom much is given, for their responsibility is greater." Would you agree that based on the blessings of your life you probably have a greater responsibility than other people in the world?

It's obvious we've been given freedom and opportunities that many people don't have. We've been given material and physical and spiritual abundance that a lot of people around the world simply do not have.

Think this through with me. If we've been blessed more than the rest of the world, then doesn't it stand to reason that God would want us to share what we have and care about the rest of the world? Does that make sense? It certainly doesn't work in reverse. Those who have more are expected to share more.

When I was 25 years old, my wife Kay and I started Saddleback. At that time, we made a 40-year commitment to our community. In thinking through our commitment, we decided we'd divide that time into decades.

We decided that the first decade—the decade of the 80s—would be the decade of local blessing. During the 80s I traveled little; in fact, I pretty much stayed right at home and focused on building the local church. We wanted to be a blessing to the Saddleback Valley and to all of Orange County.

And in the 80s we grew from just Kay and me to about 6,000 people in our church.

Then as we hit the 90s, we decided that would be the decade of national blessing. We decided to not just help our community and all of Orange County but also to help other churches around the nation.

We began to teach seminars, offer training, and produce materials to help other churches. And in the 1990s this church helped train the leaders of more than 250,000 other churches around the United States.

Now What?
What are we going to do now? We're in a new decade—the 21st century—and we've decided to expand our vision. In this new decade, we're going to focus on global blessing. We want to do what we can to help the whole world.

That doesn't mean we're going to stop focusing on the people here in this area. We still will care about the Saddleback Valley and all of Orange County. We will still care about blessing our nation as much as we can and helping them.

But now it's time to bless the whole world. I'll be sharing more about this plan in the coming weeks. I hope you'll stay tuned.

This article is used by permission from
Rick Warren's Ministry ToolBox by Rick Warren.
More information available at www.pastors.com.

About Us

The online ministry of cfaith has been helping people discover faith, friends and freedom in the Word since 2000. Cfaith provides a unique and comprehensive collection of faith-building resources for the worldwide faith community.

At cfaith, you can strengthen your faith and deepen your understanding of the Word of God by digging into the vast collection of teaching articles, streaming audio and video messages, and daily devotionals. No other website offers such a unique and extensive collection of spiritual-growth resources aimed at helping you grow in your knowledge of the Word.

Read More...

 

 

Support Us

Why support cfaith?


(All contributions are 100% tax deductible)


SUPPORT CFAITH WITH ONE CLICK!

For every Internet search you make using
goodsearch, cfaith will receive one penny!

GS Logo 250x38

Contact Us

Business Hours:


Monday—Friday: 9 a.m.—5 p.m. CST
Saturday & Sunday: Closed

Phone:

(763) 488-7800 or (800) 748-8107

Mailing Address: 

CFAITH.com
9201 75th Avenue North
Brooklyn Park, MN 55428

 

Login Form

Please ignore the “Secret Key” field; it is not needed to log in to cfaith.

Login Change Article

Spring360x442
You need to enable user registration from User Manager/Options in the backend of Joomla before this module will activate.